Harry Potter: The Adopted Boy Who Lived
by SitaSnape
Summary: All Harry ever wanted was a normal life like his school-mates. But, of course, that wasn't what life had in store for him. What happens when he finds out that James wasn't really his father? Who is his father really?
1. Prologue

Harry Potter: The Adopted Boy Who Lived.

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit off of anything Harry Potter. It is owned by J. K. Rowling.

**A/N:** This is my first ever fanfic, and I'm just figuring out how to use ... please be patient...

All Harry ever wanted was a normal life, like everyone else at school. But, of course, that wasn't to be allowed for him. He would always have to duck whispers and glances of sympathy, even from his supposed best friends. It was almost too much for one person to handle. '_At least some things never change', _he thought to himself, as yet again, Snape, the greasy git that he was, awarded him detention and 50 points from Gryffindor, for hexing Malfoy. Of course Malfoy deserved it, seeing as he was the one who snuck up on Harry and tried to curse him first.

Harry had been training his mind over the summer to recognize any sort of measure that may be taken against him, by Malfoy or by 'Others' to be unnamed. He was sick of everyone thinking that he was weak, or stupid, just because he never thought out his actions before-hand, causing others to be injured or even killed. '_Like I got Sirius killed', _Harry thought glumly to himself. If only he had listened to Snape when he was teaching him occulmancy, he thought sourly. Then Sirius would still be alive and Harry could live with him, not with his stupid aunt and the rest.

They were three of the people that he hated the most... But still not as much as he hated Voldemort. It was all because of him that Harry didn't have a normal life. And the irony was that everything he stood for, like purity of wizard blood and such, he was the opposite. Harry quietly contemplated how many people would still follow him if they knew the truth, while Ron rambled on about how much more Snape was being an arse than usual. Probably not that many.

"He didn't really need to let that prat, Malfoy, off with hardly more than a detention with Filch! We all know that Malfoy won't have to lift a finger all night, while Snape subjects Harry to who knows what nasty task! It's just not fair, Hermione!" Ron finally came to the end of a breath and before he could start up again, Hermione interjected, "Ron, you do realize that Malfoy's dad is a Death-Eater, right?"

Ron looked at her stupidly and was opening his mouth to speak again, when Hermione continued, "also, Malfoy could whine to his dad, where his dad could then make Professor Snape's life hell by saying something to _you-know-who,_ who could then cause professor Snape harm. So do you see why he has to be nice to Malfoy, and mean to Harry, Ron?" She finally finished, in her logical, Hermione sort of way that leaves no room for argument.

Ron thought quietly to himself, as did Harry, pondering her words of insight into the life of one, Severus Snape. "What do you think, Harry?" Ron asked him tentatively, like he was afraid that Harry was a fragile piece of glass that could break any moment. That was it! Harry had had enough! He stormed off, leaving Ron and Hermione standing and looking at his retreating back surprised at his sudden outburst. At least to them it was better than his latest bought of silence and self-pity/loathing.

They knew how guilty he was feeling about Sirius, but they couldn't fully understand, because he wouldn't ever speak to anyone about his feelings. And Harry was getting sick of them assuming that he only felt like they thought he did all the time.

'_Damn-it!' _He thought to himself. '_Why can't I have one person in my life who really understands me! Why does everyone important keep disappearing from my life!' _

Harry didn't realize it, but in his frustration, he had run down into the dungeons, trying to get away from everyone who might try to pity him. He panicked. He didn't recognize this part of the dungeon, and he'd been pretty much all over the castle. He heard some voices coming up behind him so he ducked in behind a suit of armor, hoping he wasn't caught. Especially since he didn't know weather he was actually allowed to be in these parts of the dungeons, and he didn't want to find out the hard way, seeing as he could now hear that one of the people coming up to where he was hiding was Snape.

'_Good grief,'_ Harry thought to himself, '_why do I always seem to end up hiding from this git? I'm always dodging or ducking him. It's really not that fair that he hates me as much as he does, just because James is my dad and he used to torment Snape all the time. It's not like __I __am. He's just an arse to me, and I'm pretty sure he overly enjoys it just a tad too much for any normal, sane person.'_

Maybe after the war was over, Harry could convince Dumbledore to send Snape off to St. Mugdo's for psychological testing. Harry couldn't help but snicker at that, and then all of a sudden he was snatched from behind the suit of armor. '_O crap.' _was all Harry thought to himself.

" Mr. Potter, I fail to see any need for you to be in the dungeons, especially in my personal labs." Snape said sourly. "Now, you have another week's worth of detentions, as well as another 100 points from Gryffindor for whatever you were planning this time."

'_For crying out loud,' _Harry thought to himself, '_I wasn't even up to anything!' For once,_ his conscious whispered treacherously back at him. He sighed heavily. _'Well, the day could have been worse_,' he thought to himself, '_at least I didn't get anyone killed or even hurt today... Just a lot of grief from my house-mates for all the points lost.' _

Snape had been waiting a day or two for the first detention to take place, bit after this, he told Harry to show up at 8 sharp or there would be even more detentions and lost points for every second he was late. He then kicked Harry out, and swung the door shut, and it wasn't until Harry stood there for a moment, that he realized he hadn't even looked at the person that Snape was talking to before Harry had interrupted him so ungracefully. Oh well... If it really were important, Harry would have noticed at some point. Harry didn't want to drag himself through dinner at the table, so he snuck to the kitchens and grabbed an armload of snacks and headed upstairs to wait for his torture session (aka detention) with Snape to begin. He even manged to get most of his homework for the weekend done. '_Great,'_ he thought to himself, '_I'm turning into a regular Hermione Granger.'_

End of epilogue.

A/N: I know it was a short chapter, but I couldn't even keep my eye's open, so I figured I'd make the first chapter into a basis to show just how Harry feels about the people around him, and then continue with the actual story...


	2. Ch1: Expect the Unexpected

Disclaimer: I don't own or profit from Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.

A/N:

Chapter 1: Expect the Unexpected...

Harry had given up on his potions essay when he realized what time is was. 7:55pm... He had 5 minutes to be to his detention on time, or Snape was going to let him have it. Crap. Why hadn't he set his stupid watch to go off earlier! Oh well, he could probably make it to the potions classroom in time... If he didn't trip and break his leg or neck on the way... _'At least I'll get out of detention for awhile,' _he thought wryly, '_then again, Snape will probably think that I did it on purpose, if not to get out of detention, but for attention.'_

Harry hated when everyone paid attention to him, especially when he was injured or emotionally hurt... Other that any plights of his, everyone almost seemed to ignore him. Harry preferred those times more often than people around him realized. He made it to the classroom door just as his watch switched to 8pm, and quickly knocked on the door three times. Harry was breathing quite heavily when he heard Snape say "enter".

"Well Mr. Potter, I see that you just had to be dramatic and wait for the last second. Almost as if you were trying to insult me by showing me no respect. Ten points from Gryffindor." Snape snapped as soon as Harry shut the door. "And learn to show people more respect in the future."

He said the last part more quietly as he locked and warded the door. Then he turned swiftly, pointed his wand at Harry, and said, "legilimate." Harry was suddenly back at the Department of Mysteries, in a battle against all the Death Eaters, with all of his friends from the D. A. and some of the order members, but again, he was paralyzed as he was forced to watch as Sirius fell behind The Veil to his death, knowing he could have stopped it if only...

He was suddenly jerked back to the potions classroom by Snape snapping sharply at him. "I thought you would have learned something over the end of last school year, _Potter,_" he said Harry's name with a sneer, "about occlumency and how to prevent others from entering your, even as small and simple as it is, mind."

Harry knew that Snape was just trying to goad him, and damn it if it wasn't working, especially today, when he was already feeling like a total jackass. He was well aware of the fact that because he couldn't control his own mind, Voldemort had been able to plant the thought that Sirius was in danger, knowing that it would get Harry to where _he_ wanted him_... _But damn it all to hell, Snape didn't have to point it out!

"YOU," Harry yelled, "ARE A TOTAL ASS!" He turned on his heel, unlocked and opened the door, and stormed off. But not before he slammed the door behind him on Snape demanding he stay exactly where he was. Or at least that's what Harry thought he was trying to yell back at him.

He started running, as fast as he could, trying to put as much distance between him and The Stupidest Git In The Universe, as quick as he could. He didn't realize it, but his running, then subsequent wandering, had brought him to the headmasters office.

Maybe he should tell Professor Dumbledore how Snape was treating him... Then again, it might be considered whining. On another hand, nobody had told _him_ anything about his occlumency lessons being resumed, so what was Harry supposed to think? Maybe it was a test to see if he had learned when to ask for help. The again, maybe Snape really was working for the bad guys? Oh, what was a person to do?

Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching. He couldn't yet hear voices, so he quickly found a convenient hiding spot, to wait and see who was coming. Soon enough, he could hear Professor Dumbledore's voice, quietly floating down the hallway, so quiet, Harry couldn't even hear what he was saying.

He then heard Snape's sharp reply, and Harry's heart sank. "I'm telling you Albus, the boy is a lost hope. I just can't teach him occlumency. Your going to have to find someone else who will _mollycoddle_ the boy, because I won't. He doesn't seem to learn any other way, even according to his teachers," he said the last part almost happily.

"I don't see why you hate Harry so much, Severus, he really is nothing like his father, James," Dumbledore replied sadly, "he's more like you than you care to admit. That's why I think your so angry at him, because he's nothing like James, and that means that you can't continue your 'rivalry' with him." Dumbledore's tone meant he didn't want any arguing, but Snape just seemed to ignore him, like he usually did to everyone else but Dumbledore.

"He's _exactly_ like _James Potter_," Snape said his name with so much distaste and venom, that Harry had to wonder what really happened to cause him and his dad to be at such a war with each other. "Fame, quidditch, wealth, a good respected well-known name, and more importantly, he stole Lilly from me!" Snape finished dejectedly.

"But yet, that has nothing to do with Harry as a person." Dumbledore replied, as if Snape hadn't just said one of the most outrageous things on all of Earth that Harry had just heard him say. "Harry has never gone out of his way to harm you, until you started being unfair to him," Dumbledore cut Snape off as he opened his mouth to say something, "also, he doesn't break rules for no reason like James did. In Harry's mind, he has a legilimate reason to break rules, usually to try and help someone else, unlike James, who only ever thought of himself. That's another thing. Harry only ever thinks of others, _never_ about himself, which can be very detrimental to a young boy his age."

Dumbledore added the last part more as an afterthought, almost as if he knew that Harry was hiding and listening in on the conversation, even though he shouldn't be eavesdropping. Knowing Dumbledore though, he did know that Harry was there, and he wanted him to hear this particular conversation. Snape just stood there, thinking of any more reasons he could fault Harry and continue to bully him for being James' son.

"He's still just as arrogant and prideful, just like his father," Snape finally spoke after a moment's contemplation. "And it will ruin him just the same as it did his father. And Lilly." He added sadly. Harry was beginning to think that Snape was really only mad at his dad for not protecting his mom, and subsequently getting her killed, as it seemed that Snape loved, even still loves, Lilly Evans. And Harry was somewhat beginning to feel a sort of understanding about how he became so bitter. And how he became the sour man that he was today.

"And now every time I look at that brat, I see the face of his father, with Lilly's eye's glaring at me so spitefully and hatefully. It's almost too much to bear. It's like I'm looking at her soul through those eye's, and she's judging me, hating me, loathing me. Why does it have to hurt so much, Albus?" Snape sounded as if he were almost hysterical and about to start weeping to Harry. "It's not fair." He whispered quietly, more to himself than to Dumbledore.

"Severus..." Dumbledore seemed at a loss for words, which Harry found very unusual. Dumbledore was almost never at a loss for words for anything. Harry continued listening in intrigued silence. "I believe that there is something that you must know." He paused for a moment. "Harry should hear this as well-" Snape cut him off, "there is no reason he needs to hear anything! This is my personal business!"

Dumbledore let him finish his say, again, before continuing like nothing happened. "Harry has a fight to hear what _I_ have to say." Dumbledore stressed. "Harry," was all he said. Snape looked at Dumbledore as if he were crazy, when Harry quietly stepped out from where he was hiding.

Snape gawked for a few minutes, processing the fact that for the second time in one day the blasted brat had been eavesdropping on him. And this time Dumbledore knew about it and had LET him. Snape grew too angry for words. Harry could see by the vein on his forehead that he was using most, if not all of his restraint, to not strangle him where he stood, sheepishly staring at the ground as if he didn't do anything wrong. It just made Snape want to kill him even more.

"Come now Severus, Harry. I need to speak with the two of you in my office," Dumbledore stated as if he were just beginning a new conversation, and Harry hadn't heard anything. It infuriated Snape even more. He was beginning to go red in the face, and Harry was beginning to wonder if he was going to pop a vein or something similar.

The three of them began their accent up the spiral stairs, Dumbledore leading the way slowly, almost as if he didn't want to reach the top of the stairs, and the door to his office. When they finally did, he gestured them in, locked and warded the doors behind him, and strode behind his desk and took a seat.

"You may as well sit," he said, gesturing to the overly over-stuffed easy-chairs. Snape eyed a chair a moment before transfiguring it into something firmer to sit on. He really did not feel like relaxing at the moment, not when he felt like he wanted to kill the brat just taking a seat next to him. Harry obviously did not feel the same, as he sat down next to Snape, obviously not feeling threatened in any way, and accepting a proffered lemon drop from Dumbledore. Snape declined. He honestly didn't know why Dumbledore kept offering when Snape had never once accepted in the entire time that he had know Dumbledore.

"Now," he began, "you both might not believe me or what I'm about to tell you, but, well, here goes nothing. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say." Harry knew that Dumbledore was just stalling now, and he was getting anxious to know what Dumbledore was having a problem saying. "Harry," he continued in a toneless voice, "Severus Snape is your true, biological father."

_'Well,' _Harry thought to himself, '_as they say, expect the unexpected.'_

A/N: DUM DUM DUM! What is Harry going to do? How will Snape react? Has Dumbledore just gone crazy? Stay tuned folks, for my next exciting chapter!

P.S.: This chapter might not be too long... I probably wont be doing long chapters... I'm not sure yet, but if I do, I'll probably do more chapters that if I do long chapters, and only do a few. We'll see... Later All!


	3. Ch2: Don't Try to Walk In My Shoes

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or profit from it. Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. The only thing I own about my stories is my original ideas...

A/N: Thank you for the reviews! On another note, I'll try to update as often as possible, but right now my apartment is being fumigated for bed bugs, so... yeah. I'll update again as soon as I can. Now on to the story, and enjoy!

Chapter 2: Don't Try to Walk In My Shoes and I won't Try to Walk In Your's.

"Harry," Dumbledore spoke softly, "Severus Snape is your biological father."

Harry stood there, dumbfounded. What was Dumbledore talking about? James was his father... Harry almost looked exactly like him too. He figured Dumbledore must have finally lost it. "You've _got_ to be kidding Professor," he said dully, not believing him, "I look nothing like Snape. I'm the spitting image of James."

"I agree with him, Albus," Snape interjected. "There is no way that that brat is of any relation to me. After all, he isn't even good at basic potions. Any relative of mine can, at a minimum, produce a polyjuice potion within a month, where as Potter can't even produce a simple sleeping draught. Him and that Weasly boy are almost as bad as Longbottom for crying out loud! The only reason that they aren't is because Granger can't seem to keep her nose out of other people's business."

Harry had the feeling that Snape was insulted, if not repulsed, at the idea of Harry being his son. But strangely enough, Harry himself wasn't insulted at the idea of Snape being his father. A little repulsed, sure, but not insulted. After all, Snape was a greasy git. It was kind of hard not to be repulsed by the man.

"The only reason," Harry retorted scathingly, "that I'm no good at potions, like any of your _other_ students, is because you sneak up on people, then criticize them, making them feel like they'll never get potions right, which makes people not care. Do you not see that most of the students in the school, the majority actually, _just_ _don't care."_

Harry was getting upset with Snape when he realized that if he _was_ Harry's father, that he had been with his mom, Lilly, at some point while she was married to James. "Professor Dumbledore, how is it possible that Snape's my father, when my mom was with James?" He asked the headmaster.

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "That, my dear boy, is a question that I'm afraid I have no answer to. The only one who does, is Severus." Dumbledore turned to Snape. "All Lilly told me is that James wasn't the father, that you were, and that nothing illegal had happened between the three of you. Can you elaborate further for us, Severus?" Dumbledore asked him politely, "as Lilly's explanation is little more than just that?"

"I can't," Snape replies tersely, "since Lilly never told me anything. She told you more than she told me, Albus."

"Are you sure about that, Severus. Maybe she never said anything to you, but is there any reason you can think of that she may thing that Harry is your son, and not James'? Seeing as they had been married for quite some time before Harry was even born?" Dumbledore let the implications hang in the air for Snape to think about. However, Harry was faster than Snape and said, "maybe they were all at a party together, and they got too drunk," suggestively.

"I believe that you are right, for once in your pathetic, miserable life, _Potter."_ Snape replied snidely, in a huff. Harry had apparently struck a nerve, assuming that the only reason anyone would ever want to be with him would be if they were drunk.

Harry hadn't realized that when he said it, and still didn't, Snape determined after seeing a slightly confused look on the boy's face at his reaction. He continued on in a monotone voice, devoid of any emotion to the night Harry had been conceived, to what Snape had believed to be the best night of life.

"You remember the last party the Order had at the Potter's house, Albus?" Dumbledore nodded. "Almost one year before the Dark Lord fell, I had begun to feel like I wasn't going to survive the war. I began to think that _he_ knew that I was betraying him to you, and I figured that it was only a matter of time before he killed me."

" At the party, people noticed my sullen mood, and tried to cheer me up. Which only made me feel worse. I had gone outside to get away from the noise so I could think, and I heard some voices whispering. I snuck up to see who it was, and saw it was Lilly and James. They were talking about about how they were having problems getting pregnant, and I quietly suggested a fidelity potion, forgetting that I was trying to spy on them."

"They turned to face me, scared and surprised. When they realized that it was me, Lilly relaxed considerably more than James did. She told me that they had tried everything. They even had muggle doctors look at him. They had told him that due to a severe strain that he had sustained (which James had known about when it happened but had just masked it with pain-killing potions, he had admitted to Lilly and Snape) which didn't heal properly, that he would never be able to father children (at least in the muggle world).

They were hopping to find some way to heal James, or something that might work, as Lilly was more than capable of bearing children. Maybe she could be inseminated artificially by James, or _something..." _

_ "_I started being pessimistic again, telling them that I really shouldn't care, seeing how Voldemort was probably going to find me out soon and kill me. That had apparently given them an idea. Maybe they could use magic to transform me with a polyjuice potion to be like James, and impregnate her. And the child would look like James, and then if I died, at least I could leave some kind of mark on the world."

"Eventually I agreed, believing that this plan would work. By this point, we were all extremely intoxicated, sitting in their gardens, and drinking some really good firewiskey. Which is probably why we figured that this plan would work. And also probably the only reason that James agreed to the plan. That, and he wanted Lilly to be happy, and he would do anything to make sure that she was."

"James apparently had a few vials of polyjuice in his stores, and went to retrieve them, while Lilly and I talked to each other. When James finally returned, he suggested that they move into the house to one of the guest rooms. James was going to stay downstairs and tell everyone not to disturb Lilly, as she was tired, so Lilly and I snuck upstairs to one of her favorite rooms, but before we did, James told Lilly not to worry about enjoying herself."

"When I finally woke up late in the morning, there was a note attached to the bed telling me that Lilly and James had to be somewhere, and that I was welcome to stay until they returned, to discuss last night's events and what would happen from now on. They returned later in the evening, and I was anxious as to what they would say to me. I know that James didn't like me, but at one point, Lilly had been in love. I didn't want to find out that she now hated me for what had happened last night. It was their idea, after all."

"James spoke to me, telling my that they were still going to try to find some other way of conceiving themselves before using the idea that we had come up with last night. I was confused, and was going to say something when I caught Lilly's eye. She was silently pleading for me to not say anything, so I then asked James what we were going to do. He laughed at me then, and said that I wasn't going to do anything, and then he demanded that I leave his home. I was already ready to leave so I stormed to the door, and let myself out."

"Apparently Lilly followed me, wanting to talk. She told me that James had had no recollection of events after they had finished discussing the basic details about the polyjuice plan, as she had called it that night. And when she had reminded James about the plan, and suggested Snape as the surrogate, James became infuriated with her for suggesting whom he considered one of the most vile men on the planet. So she didn't tell him what had really happened that night, and he never asked, and she wanted me to keep it a secret, just between us. I promised her I would. I then asked her wheat she would do if she became pregnant with my child, and she told me that she had taken a 'morning after pill', something muggles use to prevent a person from getting pregnant after the fact, and assured me that she would not be getting pregnant with my child in the foreseeable future. I believed her. She then sent me on my way with some comforting words, telling me that I would always be in her heart."

"I heard that she was pregnant about a month later, and I figured that they had found a way to conceive, using James' own DNA. It didn't occur to me that Lilly may have lied to me. Or that maybe her muggle method hadn't worked in preventing her from becoming pregnant by me. I never heard as much from her after the baby was born, but I just figured she was getting used to being a new mother. I only saw the baby on a handful of occasions, but even then, he looked just like James. I had no reason what-so-ever to think that he may be my son," Snape finished his explanation, his voice softer than when he began his re-account of how Harry had been secretly brought into the world.

"Well," Dumbledore said mulling over Snape's words, "it looks like she didn't tell anyone (except me), probably to protect everyone involved. If Voldemort had found out that you were Harry's real father, he would have killed you in a heartbeat. And if James found out that you were Harry's father, you know that he would have figured that you had forced her or that she had cheated, and divorce her or turn you in. Which would have still resulted in your death."

Snape was left to contemplate that while Dumbledore moved on to Harry. "And your mom never told you because she was never given a chance to. Even if she did tell you then, you were too young to remember, or even to understand her. We'll never know what she would have done now, if Voldemort had been defeated and her and James had survived. She may have kept lying, or she may have told everyone the truth. She may have divorced James and gone to Severus, or they may have stayed together. They may have kept you, or they may have given you up to Severus, we'll never know for sure now. But the question now becomes, what are the two of you going to do?"

"What do you mean, do, Professor?" Harry finally asked, after having his world turned upside down yet again. "None of this explains why I look like James and not Snape." "I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that one," Snape said, obviously confused like Harry was. "Do you, Albus?" He asked Dumbledore. "I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that either. Unless..." Dumbledore trailed off, lost in thought.

Harry and Snape let him think for a moment before prodding Dumbledore further. "Unless," they were both curious as to what was going on in the old coot's mind. "Unless, it's a form of transfiguration or charms... your mother was very good at both, Harry. And she could have extended the magic with arithmancy and runes, since she understood those much better than even myself. And I have quite an extensive understanding of those subjects. That is the most likely explanation I can think of. If not that, then maybe Lilly _was _mistaken somehow, and she did manage to get pregnant by James. Although, that still doesn't explain why she would think that Harry wasn't James' son, especially if he looked like James from birth... but maybe he didn't..."

They were all left wondering what to do for a few minutes, thinking about any kind of solution to their dilemma, when Snape finally spoke, an idea having come to mind for him. "We could use a parental potion to determine if he really is my son. If he isn't, I swear that I am going to obliviate his memories of this night, and what he's heard. I happen to have a few vials in my personal stores. I will go and retrieve them and I'll be right back."

Snape stood and turned on the spot, causing his robes to whirl around him, as he usually did when he was annoyed or in a hurry. He strode to the door and slipped out quietly.

Harry was left sitting where he was, unsure of what to say. Dumbledore didn't say anything to him, leaving him to his thoughts.

Harry figured that he could understand what Snape was feeling right now, as Harry felt similarly betrayed because his mother had lied to him his whole life. Snape wasn't even given a chance to even decide if he wanted to be a father, even after she and James had died. And it appeared that she had never wanted anyone, especially Harry or Snape, to know the truth. Harry was still contemplating how Snape must feel like he did, that he didn't notice when Snape returned, carrying multiple vials of potions, all different colors, which meant that they were all for different purposes.

Harry was dreading taking even one, knowing that it would taste like crap. He didn't know why potions had to taste so bad, but then again, he supposed it was from the awful ingredients often used in the potions themselves.

The first one he choked down was a paternity potion. It took a few minutes for Harry to feel anything, but when he did, he first felt cold, then very warm, and then he began to glow. The glow became stronger, until it enveloped Harry in a golden hue that proceeded to turn green and shoot out towards Snape. The light circled his waist, as if to form a chain between him and Harry. This meant that Harry was undoubtedly Severus Snape's son.

"Well, now that that's confirmed, let's try to figure out how to break any glamour spell or what have you that's causing him to look like James. I want to see what my son _truly_ looks like." Snape said, obviously happy to force the horrible potions down his throat

"You know, Snape," Harry began, "just because your mad at my mom, doesn't mean that you can be a git to me, and enjoy my discomfort. I think I can safely say that I know how you feel right now, about my mom, her lying, about me, and the fact that you have a son, and so on. So please stop taking it out on me."

Snape was getting tired of everyone assuming that they knew everything about him and how he felt, and decided to take it out on Harry. "Potter," he finally growled, "I'll tell you this once, and only once: don't try to walk in my shoes, and I wont try to walk in yours."

End of chapter 2

Hope everyone likes it... Please read and review


	4. Ch3: And Now, The Other Show Falls

Disclaimer: I don't own or profit from Harry Potter, as it belongs to J. K. Rowling. Only my ideas are mine.

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to get to updating... I hate bedbugs... Creepy little weird disgusting things... But never mind about that... On to the story!

Chapter 3: And Now, The Other Shoe Falls.

"Don't try to walk in my shoes, and I wont try to walk in yours." Snape definitely did not appreciate Harry trying to understand how he felt. He also didn't seem too pleased with the fact that Harry had just been proven to be his biological son. Harry couldn't help but feel somewhat put out that Snape didn't even like the idea that he had a son, although he couldn't understand why. This was Snape he was talking about. Of course the man wouldn't be happy to find that his son had been raised to hate him because they had both been lied to, and the fact that he had been forced to believe that Harry was James' son, being cruel to Harry to try and get back at James for so many years of horrible pranks and rudeness.

"That wasn't what I was trying to do..." Harry trailed off as he realized that he didn't know what to call Snape now. "What should I call you know? Should I call you 'father' or something?" Harry asked Snape sarcastically.

"Just call me 'Professor'. No one can know about this right now. If the Dark Lord ever found out..." Snape trailed off with a shudder. "If anyone else were to know, they might say something, even unintentionally, and that could be dangerous for me, and for others."

Harry got the feeling that he was talking about the Order. Snape could be tortured, and possibly say incriminating things about members of the Order, which could possibly get said members killed be Death Eaters.

"So your trying to tell me that I can't tell my friends right now." Harry stated in a matter-of-fact way, annoyed that Snape was trying to control him in his own way.

"Actually, I do believe that you should at least tell Granger and Weasley, seeing as she'll probably figure it out on her own, and then tell Weasley who will then go about the school, ranting his head off at the fact that his best friend didn't tell him that he was Snape's bastard son," Snape surprised Harry with this.

Harry knew how smart Hermione was, but he didn't really think that Ron would go about the school in the manner that Snape was describing. Then again, Ron _was_ known for his outrageous reactions when he figured that people were lying to him. So, Snape was probably right. It would be better to tell on and Hermione now rather than later, instead of have them figure it out on their own. Which, when they had to figure out what was wrong with Harry, they had a tenancy to get others involved, which usually meant that someone usually ended up severely injured, or even dead. And Harry was sick of people getting hurt or dying for him, just because he didn't think his actions, or others reactions, to situations, thoroughly through before jumping into situations that were possibly hazardous for himself, or for others.

"When would be a good time, _Professor,"_ Harry stressed the word, trying to emphasize how stupid it was for Harry to call Snape by that title. "And I really do think that there has to be something better that I could call you, other than Professor. I can understand calling you that in class, but really, it just seems like your trying to stay detached."

Snape's reaction so far was just that, detached. His attitude towards Harry was really beginning to piss him off. His only response was, "I am under no obligation to explain myself, or my actions, to you or anyone else for that matter." That and glaring at Harry.

Dumbledore interrupted the silent glaring match by suggesting that everyone go to bed for the night, and that he would set up a meeting time for Harry and Snape to attend, and explain their situation to everyone who needed to know. Harry still had one more question for the Headmaster before heading back to Gryffindor Tower for the night. "Professor," he inquired, "why did you wait for so long before telling us the truth? Why not tell us sooner when it could have made a difference?" He let the implications of that statement hang in the air.

Dumbledore sighed heavily, obviously hopping that neither of them would ask that particular question. Snape's attention was focused solely on what Dumbledore would say next, as was Harry's.

"I promised Lilly long ago that I would never tell a soul, but I don't think she expected things to turn out the way that they did. I think she figured that she and James would still be alive, so that Harry could have a normal family, figuring that you would likely perish at the hands of Voldemort as even you yourself figured you would. It's just that I can no longer stand to see the two of you treat each other the way you do, knowing what I knew about your 'relationship'. I honestly didn't figure that Severus would hold a grudge against you, just for who your father was. That was my mistake, and if I could, I would do things differently. I am truly sorry for keeping this secret from the two of you." Dumbledore seemed weary from the nights conversation. Harry decided that if he had anymore questions, they could wait for another day.

"Alright then. Goodnight Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, bidding him a goodnight, and with a nod of his head, he turned around, and left the Headmaster's office for the night. Harry didn't realize it, but Snape had followed him out of the Headmasters office, and jumped when Snape lied his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"You never did finish your detention with me this evening, _Potter,_" he sneered sarcastically. "I suggest that we do so now. Also, another week's worth of detentions for spying as well as another 50 points from Gryffindor." He began leading Harry down into the dungeons so to continue their detention.

Gryffindor house was going to kill him.

Harry's detention went by uneventfully this time, for which Harry was glad. He spent the next few hours scrubbing fist-year's cauldrons, who apparently didn't know how to do so properly themselves. He also stayed quiet, preferring not to talk to the man sitting at the desk at the front of the classroom that they were working in. Harry had figured that me was marking papers for class or something similar. Realizing that he was getting tired, Harry looked at his watch and was startled to realize that it was already 3:30am in the morning. Oh god. He wasn't going to be able to focus in class tomorrow on this little amount of sleep. He stood up somewhat wobbly, put all of his cleaning supplies and cauldrons away, when Snape sharply asked him what he figured he was doing.

"I'm cleaning up, so I can head back to Gryffindor so I can attempt to get enough sleep for classes tomorrow." Harry replied acidly as he was getting very cranky from having very little sleep for the past few weeks. "Unless you have a problem with me going."

"I didn't tell you that you were dismissed yet, now did I boy," Snape snarled in response to Harry's tone of voice.

Harry just rolled his eye's. "Unless you plan on me getting horrible grades and therefore failing school, I suggest that you 'dismiss' me, since it _is_ 3:30 in the fucking morning," he growled back at Snape. Harry could be satisfied for only a few moments at the shock on Snape's face for Harry's use of profanity, when it suddenly occurred to him that Snape could now punish him as he truly saw fit, and not just give him detention or take away points. Harry wished against all hope that Snape hadn't realized this either. Unfortunately for him, Snape had.

Harry was wondering, as Snape stood up, what exactly the horrible git-turned-father was going do, when Snape reached him, grabbed him by the ear, and began to drag him towards the sinks. Harry was trying to get out of the man's iron grasp on his ear, and wasn't paying attention, so when the first few squirts of the horrible tasting, thick, gooey (lumpy even), liquid soap hit the back of his throat, it was no surprise that he began to choke.

"Don't be such a pathetic baby. And be glad it's liquid soap, and not a bar of soap that I make you eat." Snape sighed in exasperation. "And seeing as you are... A Snape after all, I will not tolerate such foul language coming out of your mouth. It certainly isn't becoming of our 'savior'. I wonder what your mother would think of you using language like that. And she would agree with my form of punishment, of that I can guarantee you." Snape smirked as Harry finished sputtering and choking on the soap. "She used to do the same thing to James and Black, as I recall." He added thoughtfully. "She hated foul language. Now, do you need more, or do I trust that you understand that any time I hear word of you cursing or using foul language, that I will dump a bottle of liquid soap down your throat."

Harry shook his head in acknowledgement, not wanting to open his mouth and taste soap again. Snape handed him a glass of water and instructed him to drink it. Harry downed the glass with his nose plugged, trying to get as much of the soap out of his mouth. This caused him to end up with hiccups, which was rather funny after having swallowed almost a full bottle of liquid soap, and not enough water to dilute it afterwards. Harry was hiccuping bubbles.

Snape had yet to notice, as he had turned around for a moment to pick up a paper that had ended up on the floor. As soon as he turned around, however, he was assaulted by an explosion of bubbles in his face, which had accumulated during Harry's hiccups. Harry found the look on Snape's face at that moment to be priceless, and collapsed on the stone floor in a fit of rolling laughter.

Snape looked surprised to see that his punishment had backfired. Mind you, surprised was a bit of an understatement, shocked was more like it. He had watched Lilly pour the bottle countless times, just as he had done, then give the person the exact same amount of water, and this had never happened to her. So why did it happen to him just now? Maybe there was something wrong with Pott- No wait. He couldn't call his own son Potter in private anymore, or in his thoughts... It just didn't seem right to call him that now.

But that raised another issue. If he called him Harry, the boy might think that he was being affectionate, and that also meant that the boy should be allowed to call him something other than Professor. He wasn't ready for that level of familiarity yet. Not now. Not ever. That is, if things went his way, which, they usually didn't.

"Get off the floor boy," he had settled on 'boy' for the time being, intent on finding something else to call him at a later point. "You look like a fool, and your ruining your school uniform." Oh god. Now he sounded patronizing, even to himself. That was not what he had been going for. He didn't want the brat to think that he cared at all for him.

It suddenly occurred to him that the boy had mentioned something about it being late, so when he looked at the clock, he was astonished to see that it was nearing 4am. No wonder Harry had cursed at him. It was bloody late, even by Snape's standards!

He had spent the better part of the night wondering just which potion or spell might get rid of any charms Lilly had used to disguise Harry as James' son, and hadn't even been paying attention to the time. Or the papers that he needed to have marked by the time classes started. Damn it. This was all Lilly and Dumbledore's fault. If they had just both told the truth from the beginning, things would have been significantly different. But that was a moot point now. Now, he had other things to deal with.

Like thinking of a good excuse to tell the boy why he was writing him a dismissal for classes, and not have to admit that it was his fault because he had not been paying attention to the time. When nothing good came to his mind, he decided not to say anything about why he wrote it.

"This will get you out of classes for tomorrow, but don't expect this to be a regular occurrence. Understand?" Snape questioned Harry, who just nodded, not having expected this from Snape. "You may leave now," Snape said in way of dismissal.

Harry gathered up his books (which he had forgotten in his hasty dash out of the room earlier) and walked to the door. When he got there, he paused for a moment with the door open, quietly whispered goodnight (he was pretty sure it was too quiet for Snape to hear) and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.

Snape stood frozen in one place for a moment, comprehending the fact that Harry had just said goodnight to him. He had never said that before, of that Snape was certain. Perhaps the boy had some sad hope that Snape may grow to love him, or something as equally as pathetic. Snape didn't want to admit to himself that it would be nice to have a son that didn't hate his guts. And besides, it's not like anyone could really know at the moment that their precious boy-who-lived was really the son of a known Death Eater. It would be funny though, Snape thought to himself, to see the look on people's faces when everyone could be let in on the big secret.

He continued to think his gleeful thoughts as he made his way to his personal rooms to retire for the night. Unfortunately for him, he was not a student that could be excused from classes for the day like Harry could, he was a teacher who was charged with the responsibility of making sure that these dim-witted students didn't blow themselves or the castle apart.

Tomorrow was going to be quite the day, he thought wearily to himself.

Harry was making his way back to Gryffindor Tower slowly, still pondering the events of the last 8 hours. Good god, that already seemed like a lifetime ago. Mere minutes before he learned that Severus Snape was his father, he had stormed out on an occlumency lesson with said person. Harry blinked twice when he realized that his friends hadn't heard from him in 8 hours, and they were likely to be frantic by now, taking turns napping until Harry got back. And if he didn't return by morning Harry knew that they would contact Dumbledore or Mcgonnagal with some story about the last thing they heard from Harry was that he had a detention with Snape. Dumbledore would know where Harry would be but Mcgonnagal wouldn't, so Harry figured he'd best get back to his common room as soon as possible.

He was one staircase away, when he felt someone's fingers clamp down on his shoulder, and thinking it was Snape, he said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be "piss off Snape". The fingers dug in deeper, and for a moment, Harry was scared as he remembered downing a bottle of soap. He quickly turned around, and to his relief saw Hermione and Ron's heads floating in the air.

"There you are!" Hermione nearly shrieked. "Where have you been! It's after 4 in the morning. And what are you thinking, telling a teacher to piss off?" Leave it to Hermione to be worried more what a teacher would think.

"Look, I'll tell you, but we have to go somewhere else first." Harry responded, already exhausted, but knowing that the two of them wouldn't leave him alone until they got some answers to their questions.

Harry started back down the stairs, leading to a private area that he knew they could talk in private. Mind you, he had been learning wards all summer, having nothing better to do. His 16th birthday had passed without any presents from the Dursley's, but Harry had expected nothing less. He had gotten a couple of presents from Hagrid, Hermione, Ron, Ron's parents, Ginny, Fred, George, and even one from Neville and one from Dumbledore, but nothing too grand for his sweet 16. Harry supposed that the sweet 16 was only a muggle thing, so he hadn't been too disappointed by everyone. Except Hermione. She was a muggle so she should have known. Harry still wasn't to upset though... He was just happy that he had gotten something for his birthday, and that people had remembered it.

They had finally reached his destination. Harry had been silent the whole time, wondering secretly to himself what his 16th birthday might have been like if he had grown up with Snape as his father/family, instead of the Dursley's raising him. And Hermione and Ron hadn't said a word, leaving him to his thoughts.

It was the Room Of Requirement. Harry had figured that it would provide him with everything he needed for an explanation as to his whereabouts for the night.

The three of them settled in for Harry's explanation, and as Harry opened his mouth to speak, three glasses of firewiskey appeared before them. Harry figured that the effects would leave their body as soon as they left the room, and suggested it to the others. Even Hermione had to agree, since she had once tried to take a book out of the room, unsuccessfully. It had disappeared as soon as the door had, leaving her disappointed that she couldn't finish her school work, or any personal reading without staying in that room. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't realized that you could sculpt the room to your specific desires by thinking of outcomes of different scenarios.

Harry began by warding the doors for sight, sound, smell, _and_ familiars. It was a spell that he had thought about after he had realized that familiars such as Nagni could penetrate regular wards, and wizards such ad Voldemort or Dumbledore could spy on his conversations.

"Well," he began once they were settled, "a very short version of my night would be that I found out that Snape is me biological father." He barley had time to dodge the simultaneous spurts of firewiskey protruding from the mouths of his two best friends when he said aloud without knowing, "and now the other shoe falls."

A/N: Yippee! I have me computer back! But, seriously, I hate bed-bugs! They are creepy! And the procedures they make you do are bull-shit. Bag all your clothes, shoes and books. Then unbag them after fumigation so the eggs can hatch and the fumigators can come back within 6-8months and make more money off you or your company so rent prices have to be raised... BULL SHIT! ERRRRRR... It makes me so mad at times... P.M. me with your opinions on this matter. They are important to me. Also, if you have any suggestions on how to improve my writing skills, they would be greatly appreciated.

P.S.: Will update again as soon as possible... I don't have any pre-written chapters... I write on the spot... :)


	5. Ch4: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own or profit off of Harry Potter. It is sole property of J. K. Rowling... The only thing I own is my own ideas.

_A/N:_ Sorry it's taken so long to update... The damn bugs came back, and I had to pack all my computers again. These fumigators suck! Any who, on to the story!

Chapter 4: _Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus _("Let Sleeping dragons Lie", _Lit._ "A Sleeping Dragon is Never to be Tickled").

Harry was glad the room had provided the three of them with a limitless supply of firewiskey. They had certainly needed it. Harry has just finished telling him all the details from the evening he had spent in Dumbledore's office, and subsequently with Snape. He also told them of what had happened when he swore in front of Snape.

"Seriously, who uses liquid dish soap anymore to prevent swearing! It's childish and should be criminal!" Harry said indignantly. He wanted to kick Ron for laughing himself silly at this. Once Ron stopped laughing and wiping tears from his eye's he told Harry that _his_ mom still used that form of punishment. And even still spanked him and Ginny if she ever caught them doing something they shouldn't. Like flying his dad's car. Ron's mom was still furious about that.

As Harry poured himself another glass of the whiskey, he glanced at his watch, and was surprised to realize that the first class of the day (transfiguration with Mcgonnagal) was almost finished. He pointed it out to Hermione who, for once, didn't seem concerned with school and classes. Harry figured that it was from the liquor, and he decided that he preferred Hermione better once she had a few drinks.

After Harry had initially told them that Snape was his real father and they had gotten over their shock, they had demanded to know who was playing pranks on Harry. When he explained that it was Dumbledore who told him about Snape, they had then demanded to know what he had been thinking, keeping a secret like that from Harry. Harry had to explain what Snape had told him and Dumbledore, and that Lilly had made Dumbledore promise not to tell anyone, fearing that James might be mad at her or leave her, since he had apparently forgotten the arrangement from the night of the party.

Ron and Hermione then proceeded to get pissed in a very short amount of time, all the while peppering him with questions as they came to their minds. Questions like 'did Snape freak out' and 'what did Snape have to say', and others. Harry did his best to answer them with what little he did know. Even Hermione wanted to know why he looked nothing like Snape. Harry explained Dumbledore's theory about charms or spells so no one would notice that he didn't look like Snape.

Hermione, of course, agreed with the Headmaster's assessment of Harry's 'situation'. Ron, on the other hand, didn't know what to think. He had just found out that his best-friend is his worst enemy's son, though he knew that he couldn't hold it against Harry that Snape was his father. That didn't really change who Harry was. Hermione pledged to help Harry, Dumbledore, and subsequently Snape, to find out how to reverse whatever was 'glamoring' Harry, as she liked to call it. Ron finally pledged not to be a prick to Harry, and to support him however he could.

By the end of morning classes Harry was getting very tired, and was happy knowing that Ron and Hermione weren't upset or angry with him and had decided to support him no matter what. He suggested the three of them head back to Gryffindor tower to get some sleep. Hermione agreed, since her and Ron hadn't had much sleep that night either, being worried about Harry.

Ron however, in the usual Weasley manner, demanded that they head down to the kitchen's and get something to eat, since they had missed breakfast and lunch. That made Harry and Hermione laugh, and while they did, their stomaches growled in betrayal. The both blushed and agreed with Ron to head down to the kitchens and get a snack.

When they left the room, they realized that they were still drunk, even with the door gone. Hermione started to fret, when Harry instructed them to hide under the invisibility cloak with him, and to be really quiet, since everyone was still in class.

An they made their way down, Harry realized that they didn't have a pass for the day to get out of class like he did. He felt bad knowing that they would most likely be questioned by Mcgonnagal, before being given detention... Which would then lead to Mcgonnagal questioning Harry, and he wasn't sure how he would be able to handle that, since Snape didn't want Harry to tell anyone anything without his permission.

In his drunk state, he couldn't really care though, and soon forgot what he had been thinking about as he concentrated on what Hermione was saying about some further research she had been doing into Hogwarts' history.

"I've discovered that no one really knows exactly how old the school is, or how it was built. Or even who built it. It's suspected that the founders built the school, but then again, it may have already been here, possibly as one of the family properties. It was quite often at that period for people to have castles, and not manors or houses, and if that's the case, no one may ever know how old Hogwarts is. There is no known land title or deed to the property, and there has been many searches done in pursuit of information on the subject. But that doesn't mean I'm done trying to find the answers to my questions!" They finally reached the kitchens, with Hermione slurring her words the entire way, and Ron and Harry rolling their eyes at each other behind her back.

They had discovered that Hermione was rather entertaining when she was drunk, and decided to plot to get her drunk a little more often. While keeping an eye on her so she didn't do anything that she may regret, due to them spiking her drinks. The three of them grabbed a rather substantial amount of food (enough to feed at least 5 people) and began heading back up to Gryffindor, forgetting to put the invisibility cloak back on before leaving the kitchens.

While they were stuffing their faces on the way up (Hermione included), they were intercepted, by a _very_ cross looking Mcgonnagal. She definitely _did not _look pleased when laid she her eyes upon the three of them... ", and . I might expect this level of disobedience and disrespect from a first, or even a second year, but not of a sixth year. And especially not from two people who have been Gryffindor prefects for over a year already!" She snapped at them harshly. "My office, now." She said the last part as more of a General's command than that of a teacher, and as it just so happened, Malfoy was within earshot of the conversation and as the three of them passed by where he was hiding, snickering and trying not to laugh loud enough to be heard by anyone, Hermione grabbed him out from behind the suite of armor by his ear and called for Mcgonnagal's attention.

"Well ," she said upon seeing him, "it seems that you will be joining this afternoon's 'unprompted' detention. Seeing as you missed my Transfiguration class as well." Mcgonnagal definitely was not happy. Less than a week after school had resumed, four of her students had missed class in one day. And one wasn't even her responsibility.

She marched them off as if they were convicts in their own demise. "I want to know what is going on in this castle, house rivalries aside, between the four of you, right this instant!" She demanded as soon as they reached her office, and she simplistically warded the doors, as any teacher would. Harry knew that he would have to talk to her about those as soon as he got an chance, knowing that any third year with a brain could disintegrate them in half a breath.

"Actually, professor," Hermione tried to dispute, while sloshed, "there is nothing going on between any Gryffindor or Slytherin here that any of us here know of," Hermione was trying to be exuberant in her exclamations, and her attitude was entertaining enough, but they had to prove her right somehow.

"I am currently in agreement, as nobody in Slytherin house can tolerate a Gryffindor for more than a class. And _only_ because that is required of us," Malfoy said in agreement with a sneer on his face.

"Then why have four of my sixth year students, three of them prefects, decided to skip all of their classes for the day? And why are the three of you drunk?" she aimed the last part at Hermione, knowing that she couldn't resist telling a teacher the truth.

"I don't know what Malfoy was doing," Harry interjected before Hermione could open her mouth, "but the three of us didn't get much sleep because professor Snape lost track of time during my detention, and these two went looking for me cause they thought I might be in trouble. I have a note here for you from him," Harry said quickly, fishing the note out of his pocket.

Mcgonnagal took the note from him, read it and handed it back, knowing he would need it to show his other teachers the next day in class. "Very well, I understand why you were worried about Harry," Mcgonnagal said, knowing about what had happened at the ministry the previous year. "But that still doesn't explain 's absence from classes." She may have understood, but Harry could tell that she was still mad. "Or why the three of you are drunk," Mcgonnagal added the question almost as an afterthought.

Harry waited for Malfoy to respond first, curious as to his reasons for skipping class as well. "I was looking for Potter, as I had something that I needed to speak to him about and was going to do so after first class, but he never showed up and neither did Granger and Weasley. I figured something must have come up, since that's the only time they disappear, and went to search for them." Malfoy responded nonchalantly, as if his concern was a normal everyday occurrence. Which left the other four occupants in the room gaping at him. Any one of them could have swallowed a fly at that moment, and wouldn't have noticed.

"Since when do you care about anyone else but yourself, _Malfoy_?" Ron sneered at him. "Since I learned about part of the prophecy over the summer," Malfoy responded in a even, calm tone. "The only thing I heard was that Potter would be marked as the Dark Lord's equal, and something about them having to kill each other. Apparently that's all my dad knows, which means that that's all that _He_ knows. While I might agree with some of his ideals like muggle's not finding out about the wizarding world, I don't agree with his or my father's methods. At the rate their going, muggles will know about us before the school year is out." That option obviously didn't sit well with Malfoy, Harry realized, and figured that he would rather be on the side of light protecting magic from being discovered by the muggles than the side of dark, exposing the wizarding world to, well, the world.

The sudden change in Malfoy made Harry hopeful that he and Snape might be able to get over their past, as Malfoy obviously wanted to do. Unless it was a trap. But the only way to figure that out would be to let him continue with his trap.

"Anyway," Malfoy continued, "I have some information for Potter and I wanted to tell him as soon as possible. That's why I missed classed today."

Mcgonnagal seemed to accept his explanation, even if she did so warily, and sent the four of them on their way, explaining that if they ever intentionally skipped out of classes again, there would be dire consequences. That made them shudder, since they knew she was capable of many things as Deputy Headmistress.

On their way out, Malfoy asked Harry if they could talk somewhere in private, meaning he didn't want Hermione and Ron to hear what he had to say. Harry, as tired as he was, agreed to talk to Malfoy and began to lead him to the room of requirement. Ron and Hermione followed behind, knowing that Harry would tell them everything anyway, while Harry convinced Malfoy of that fact.

"Very well," Malfoy said, not pleased that he would have a larger audience than expected. "I suppose it's only natural that Potter would tell you what I'm going to tell him. Where are you leading us to anyway, Potter?" Malfoy asked, curious as to Harry's secret hiding spaces.

"You've been there before, Malfoy." Was all Harry responded with.

They reached the room, which was just a wall at that moment, when Harry started pacing back and forth in front of it, thinking of what he needed. A comfortable, private place for them to talk, perhaps with some more firewiskey. He was starting to sober up, and didn't want to do so while he was awake. He knew he would end up sick to his stomach if he let that happen, as he had a few times before already.

The door to the room finally appeared. Harry opened it, gesturing for the other three to head in first, so he could ward the door properly. He used the same wards as when he talked to his friends that morning, since he didn't know what it was that Malfoy wanted to tell him. When he finished, he went to one of the comfy couches, and plopped himself down on it, and looked at Malfoy expectantly.

"Well..." Malfoy began hesitantly, not sure of how to word what he had to say. "I know of your 'relationship' with Sirius Black, and what happened to him at the ministry at the end of the last school year, from what my parent's and Bellatrix have said. I happened across a book in our library this summer that I thought might hold some sort of clue about the Veil that he fell behind," Malfoy offered, pulling the book out of his bag, holding it out for Harry to take.

The book itself must have been as old as the castle was, even though it was perfectly preserved. It was titled 'The Veil: It's Dark Secrets Reveled'. It also had a picture of the Veil on the front of the book. Harry instantly became curious about what Malfoy wanted in return for this information, and asked him as much.

"I only want three things: first, that Potter kill the Dark Lord; second, that you don't tell anyone where you got this book; and third; we try to put the past behind us and be civil to each other, if not friends." He said the last part dejectedly, not expecting them to agree with his conditions, but hopefully at the same time, wishing they would.

Harry pondered Malfoy's three conditions for giving him the book. None of them were too outrageous, even though they had been enemies for for as long as they were. Probably longer in Malfoy's case as he had been brought up to despise Harry's very existence. Harry had a sudden flash of insight into who Malfoy was. He had never been given an option in his life, from what he said and wore, to what he believed, and having no one around him to offer a different opinion just made his belief's stronger. Harry decided that not letting Malfoy try to be friends might destroy whatever chance to be a good person Malfoy had. And he had the right to try, especially since he _wanted_ to change, for the better.

"That sounds reasonable enough to me. What do you think, guys?" Harry asked his friends, who were still shooting wary glances Malfoy's way.

Hermione seemed to reach the same conclusion as Harry about Malfoy's upbringing, and agreed. Ron, who still hadn't come to that conclusion on his own, was looking at Harry and Hermione like they had just sprouted wings. He couldn't, however, disagree with them without looking like a total prick, and agreed as well.

"Well then, it's agreed," Harry said brightly. "Welcome to our little clan, Draco! Now, who wants a drink?" He asked, summoning four glassed and a decent bottle of firewiskey, and pouring a drink for everyone, as they had all raised their hands.

They spent the next few hours getting drunk again, the first time for Draco that day, and getting to know each other. As it turned out, Harry and Hermione had been right about Draco's upbringing, and that he had never been allowed to have an original thought of his own. He had always been controlled by _someone_, be it his parent's, another family member, a teacher (meaning Umbridge, of course), and even other Death Eaters.

"I know of one Death Eater thats right under the Headmaster's nose too," Draco said, slurring his words slightly. "He's even one of our teachers." He said the last part to Hermione, expecting her to be shocked. When she wasn't, Draco became confused. "Doesn't that surprise you? A Death Eater right here at the school, and a teacher at that?"

Hermione shook her head, curls bouncing as she did so enthusiastically. "We've known about Professor Snape for a while now," she replied with a smirk of her own. "But I'll bet you don't know what we do about him." She said the last part suggestively, letting the possibilities hang in the air.

Draco made such a fuss for Hermione not telling him that Harry finally, accidentally, blurted out, "Snape's my father." The look on Draco's face was almost worth it. Then he remembered Snape. Bloody hell. He hadn't meant to say that. Snape was going to kill them. Hermione should have left well enough alone and not have egged Draco on. Oh well, to late now. Now they had to go find Snape and tell him of their blunder. Harry severely wished that he could follow the school motto at that moment, as he was about to do the exact opposite.

'_Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus' _("Let Sleeping dragons Lie", _Lit._ "A Sleeping Dragon is Never to be Tickled"). Smart motto.

Please review!

_A/N:_ Again, I will try to update as soon as possible, but as I'm _still_ dealing with these stupid bugs, I can't make any promises as to how soon I will be able to update. That, and I write on the spot, and don't have any pre-written chapters that I can upload on a whim when I haven't had access to my computer in a while. Hope you enjoyed!


	6. Ch5: Hope

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own or profit off of Harry Potter. It is sole property of J. K. Rowling... The only thing I own is my own ideas.

_A/N:_ I'm back to work now so I might not be able to update as much as I want to (I don't get to anyway since it takes me so long to type things out...) It might only take one extra day, maybe two, but not much longer than it usually does... Please enjoy this next chapter, and please review!

Chapter 5: Hope

They didn't know for sure where Snape was, so they tried the dungeons first, suspecting that he would be in the potions lab. They were right, though he was in his personal labs, and without Draco helping, they probably wouldn't have found it.

They stood outside trying so sober up as much as possible and use spells to make their breath's smell better (all were spells that Draco knew and Hermione didn't), and tidy themselves up before entering the dragon's lair. Harry knocked, and waited for Snape to say enter before he opened the door.

As they entered, Snape looked up to see who was disturbing him, and had to hide the surprise from his face at the sight of his 'son' and friends, with Draco Malfoy who was looking very lost and confused. The four of them took a couple seats that Hermione had conjured up, and sat there without saying a word.

Snape raised an eyebrow and waited for one of them to speak. When nothing was said, Snape prompted one of them to speak. "And to what do I owe this displeasure of your presence to?" He asked, _very_ snidely, referring to Harry, as he normally would. Ron opened his mouth to say something, so Hermione quickly clamped her hand over his mouth. That made Snape raise his eyebrow even further.

"Well," Harry began, wary as to Snape's reaction to what he was about to say. "We kinda accidentally told Draco..." He trailed off, hoping Snape would understand what he meant. Unfortunately for Harry he didn't. And if he did, he was toying with Harry, but he couldn't be sure.

"Told Draco..." Snape trailed off, waiting for Harry to explain further.

Harry sighed, and continued. "We accidentally told him about you being my... father." Harry only called him that because he didn't want to call him dad.

If Snape was pissed of, he didn't show it. Harry supposed that that might be worse than Snape flying off the handle, but since he didn't know the man, he didn't dare assume anything about him.

Meanwhile, Snape was cursing the three idiots, especially his 'son' who should know better than anyone not to tell Draco Malfoy anything. He was seething at that moment, but not displaying any emotion, when Harry continued with his explanation.

"Draco came to find us, because he doesn't want to be on the Dark side anymore, and we got talking about why, and our childhood's, when he accidentally let it slip that he knew of a Death Eater right here in Hogwarts. Hermione couldn't help herself, and tempted Draco by saying that we already knew who it was, and that we probably knew more than he did about you, and Draco wouldn't stop whining, when I accidentally said that you were my father to get him and Hermione to stop." Harry had never said so much in one breath before and was a little light headed, especially since he hadn't gone to sleep yet, or eaten much that day.

Snape looked at Draco, curious then, and asked him why he didn't want to follow in his fathers footsteps. "Well, while I don't want magic to be revealed to the world, I no longer agree on the methods that are being used by my father and his 'friends'. They attract too much attention to our world, with attacks on muggles. And after going to school for six years, I realize that some muggle-borns are better at magic, and some even know more about the wizarding world than most pure-bloods. I learned a lot over the summer," Draco said quietly, knowing only what his father had said about Snape.

Snape was contemplating this new turn of events. It was good news indeed, but he didn't know what to do about Draco now. The boy knew too much and might tell someone, even if he didn't want to. Snape decided then, to make them all swear a Wizard's Oath. The purpose in which making it impossible, even under Veritaserum, for any of the five of them to talk about this matter or any others ever discussed in that room, to anyone else without permission from everyone there. Which meant that the four of them had to be present at whatever meeting that Dumbledore was planning. He knew that it would take a few days for the Headmaster to get everything ready and the proper people informed of the time and place, so he told the four of them to make sure if they talked about any of this, that they make sure they warded the doors properly. Just because they were under oath, didn't mean that people couldn't eavesdrop on them.

He dismissed them, and told them as they left that they all had detention in two days, and 25 points taken from each of them for drinking, closing the door behind them.

The four of them weren't that surprised that he knew that they had been drinking, but they were surprised that that was all he gave them as a punishment. Not even a lecture or anything like that. They left quickly, however, just to be sure that Snape wouldn't change his mind and make their punishment worse.

Again, Ron suggested that they head down to the kitchens to get something to eat, seeing as they had missed dinner while in the Room of Requirement, and again Harry and Hermione had to agree, with Draco agreeing as well. He had never seen the kitchens and was curious as to what it looked like. He had also missed dinner while searching for the trio, and was "feeling rather peckish too", as he had worded it.

Harry had to snicker at that, knowing that he would have to teach Draco some slang. Especially if he always talked so proper. Mind you, Harry probably needed to be taught some proper language and manners as well, as it was probably expected of him to be very 'proper'. And Hermione and Ron didn't seem to know enough about wizarding culture to be able to help him. He proposed a deal to Malfoy, telling him that he would teach him slang if Draco would teach him manners. Draco accepted, not wanting to appease his parents anymore. He was sick of making them proud for being so sickeningly proper. He didn't even want the name Malfoy anymore, but Harry told him to continue acting like he did, until he was of age. Seeing as his father was now in prison, and would be when Draco came of age, Draco would become the 'Elder' Malfoy, gaining control over all the Malfoy assets. Then he could disown his father and cut him off from the Malfoy name. Which would be a serious blow to Voldemort, since Lucius was one of his largest financiers.

Draco contemplated this information, surprised that Harry knew that much about wizarding custom's and laws. Slowly, he nodded his head in agreement. "That's actually a really good idea, Harry," he said slowly, choosing his next words carefully. "But, in addition to that, I should transfer everything in the Malfoy name to some one else so that even if my father does get out of Askaban and happens to kill me, or doesn't get out but orders me killed, everything won't be transferred back into his name for the uses of the Dark side."

They reached a portrait of a bowl of fruit by that point, and Draco gave them all a confused look. "I thought we were going to the kitchens. What are we doing here?" He asked, befuddled. He couldn't smell any food like he figure he would, and began to wonder if Harry and the rest weren't trying to get him somewhere alone to torment him for the many scathing remarks he had made in the years prior.

"This is the kitchen!" Hermione finally managed to explain after she stopped laughing, which was much sooner than Harry and Ron. Draco managed to look even more bewildered than before, if that was even possible. After having another small laughing fit, she reached for the portrait, and tickled the pear until the kitchen door was revealed.

"After you monsieur," Hermione said gracefully

Draco shook his head, slightly amused. "This castle never ceases to amaze me," Draco said, now thinking of new ways to hide thing in his dorm room. "No Slytherin would even think of tickling a pear on a portrait or anything so obvious to someone else to reveal a secret door, room, passage or anything really." Draco was getting excited about the possibilities of using something like that against other Slytherin's, knowing that they wouldn't suspect him at all. He now had a small smile on his face, and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Careful Draco," Harry warned, "your horns are beginning to show." He and Hermione were the only ones who understood the reference, and spent quite a while laughing at Ron and Draco. "Come on, grab some food so we can get back to the Room of Requirement and talk more." Harry finally managed to gasp out, still clutching his sides. They all grabbed whatever they each wanted, and headed to the Room. They talked for a long time after they finished eating, but didn't drink anymore since they all had to be in class the next morning. Harry wasn't sure what time it was when he finally nodded off after Draco had fallen asleep, though he was pretty sure it was late. The room had provided them with a large bed to sit and talk, and Harry was glad he didn't have to use magic to move anyone into bed. His last thought's before he drifted off were that he hadn't laughed that hard in years, even before Sirius had 'died', and that he had to get Draco to help him with that, since he didn't know much about Dark Arts.

'At least I have hope, thanks to Draco.' He thought to himself with a small smile on his lips. He forgot to set an alarm to wake them all the next morning.

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**A/N:**


	7. Ch6: Expect the Expected

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter... I wish I did... It belongs to J. K. Rowling... :(

_A/N:_ Please review! And enjoy this next installment of my story...

Chapter 6: Expect the Expected

Harry woke to find a very annoying little house-elf, named Dobby to be exact, standing on his chest with his pointed little nose right in Harry's eye. He was also pulling on Harry's right ear making it very sore and sensitive. Then he had the nerve to yell in it.

"What the HELL Dobby?" Harry yelled, waking the others in the process.

"Dobby is very sorry to Harry Potter he is, but the sirs and misses are needing to wake up now. Mister Snape is looking for you, so he sent Dobby to find mister Harry Potter he did." Dobby said as apologetically as he could.

That made Harry bolt upright into a sitting position, while the others were still blinking their eyes, not having really heard what Dobby said. Harry then became a human whirlwind, waking the others with a spell that simulated the feeling of cold water being dumped on your person without actually getting wet, grabbing clothes and magicking them onto their rightful owners, and trying to explain over all of their protesting, what exactly he was doing.

"In short," he repeated, again, "we all slept in, and now Dobby says that Snape is looking for us. He didn't say anything else."

Ron visibly paled at the thought of being late for _another_ one of Snape's classes, forgetting that he had dropped the class that year. Hermione had to remind him so, and felt compelled to remind the other two (Harry and Draco) of them that they weren't so lucky, since the three of them needed to take Snape's class for one reason or another. Harry figured he should learn how to make his own healing potions rather than go to the hospital wing all the time. Hermione seemed to like the class, oddly enough. And Draco's parents wanted him to learn dark potions, for Voldemort. That, and Draco actually liked the class as well.

They were all rushing for the Great Hall, since it was now lunch time, when Peeves floated up behind them, and dumped a bucket of skunk spray on them. They didn't know what to do. They couldn't curse him since he was a ghost, and they were late enough for classes as it was. They decided it would be a better idea to show up in the Great Hall smelling like they did than to face Snape for missing a whole day of classes.

As they opened the doors to the Hall, heads turned their way, and the four of them could visibly see people's noses wrinkle in distaste at their unique aroma. They then noticed the teachers giving them all looks of open curiosity on their faces. All except Snape and Dumbledore, that is. Snape looked pissed off and Dumbledore just looked amused, which was normal for the two of them.

As the four of them made their way to their separate tables and houses, Harry quickly whispered a lie to Draco for him to use on his fellow Slytherin's for why he entered the Great Hall with _'Potty Potter'_, which seemed to be his new nickname for the year, courtesy of Draco himself. Adding his new smell, Harry figured that he would never get rid of that name while he was in Hogwarts.

The Slytherin's were laughing their heads off by the time Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats, even if they wouldn't let Draco sit anywhere within smelling range of them. By then, most of the Great Hall had either gone back to what they were doing, or left, having lost their appetite.

"So, care to explain where you've been for the last two day's, and why you smell like shit?" Seamus asked once he got over the smell of the trio.

"Well, Peeves decided to play one of his practical jokes on us... He dumped a bucket of skunk spray on us, and Malfoy too, which is the only reason we find this funny. Malfoy figured that he could get Peeves to do whatever he wants him to, but apparently Peeves found this result much funnier than what Malfoy had wanted." Harry replied, pretending to hold in laughter that really wasn't there. He was pissed off with Peeves just as much as the other three were, if not more. Peeves had promised Harry no more pranks that might get him in trouble, after Harry had threatened to have the Bloody Baron come after him in retribution.

Everyone was still waiting for him to answer Seamus' other question. "And I was with Ron and Hermione for the last two days so you don't have to worry. I wasn't doing anything too stupid, just hanging out in the Room." He finished explaining to them, knowing that they were worried for his sake now, especially after the events at the end of the last school year. The relief on everyone's faces was evident.

Harry supposed he was lucky that the D.A. hadn't banded together by now to mount a search and rescue mission, since they wouldn't have bothered going to Dumbledore first. They had probably checked the hospital wing first though, just to make sure he wasn't there since he spent an unusually large amount of time there at any given point. He was even on a first name basis with Poppy at that point, though he made sure not to call her that while around other students. They didn't really know her well enough to call her that in Harry's opinion.

Harry decided to change the subject by suggesting that they re-form the D.A. and maybe make it a school club of sorts. Then it would be official, and other houses could join, since they hadn't really known about it until it had been found out and disbanded by Umbridge the previous year. By then it was too late for anyone else to join, and therefore too late to learn proper defense skills since they weren't being taught be Umbridge, or any other Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers previously. Except Lupin, that is. And perhaps Alastor Moody, even though that was really Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise, trying to get Harry to the cemetery, and therefore get him killed. Those were the only two teachers that Harry had ever learned any defense from, and Lupin was the only DADA teacher who didn't want to kill him, or get him killed.

Everyone agreed with Harry, and Hermione began planning out a course to follow, along with anything else that might be needed. Harry decided that he had to talk to Dumbledore before they announced the re-forming of the DA, since he would need permission from parents this time. He also figured that Dumbledore would agree with him, since the post for the DADA teacher had not yet been filled. Everyone Dumbledore had owled about the job had refused, knowing that no one had made it past their first year as a teacher of that particular class.

That thought made everyone still at the table enter a deep discussion about who they thought might actually end up teaching the class, be it Dumbledore himself or a combination of all the teachers. Maybe Dumbledore would actually find someone to fill the position after all.

While everyone was in deep discussion, Harry, Hermione and Ron managed to sneak away from the Gryffindor table silently and made their way out of the Hall, and towards Gryffindor tower to get their things for classes that afternoon.

Meanwhile, Snape was fuming silently, not saying a word but sending loathing glares in Harry's direction, as he usually did, so no one thought his behavior was out of the ordinary. But he was upset for reasons than the others could possibly hope to comprehend coming from him. It was almost as if the three of them, his son most of all, were treating him with blatant disrespect, especially after what he had told them last night.

And Harry obviously had a hand in Dobby not telling him where they were that morning. After he had found them, Dobby had popped back to tell him that they would be showing up in the Great Hall shortly, but wouldn't take Snape to them, or tell him where they were in the castle. And it wasn't like Snape had been nice to the House Elf, so he probably knew Snape was angry at Harry for some reason or another, and was trying to protect Harry from Snape's wrath as long as he could, not knowing that he had only made things worse for Harry in the long run.

Snape knew that the four of them had been drinking the night before, and no one had obviously remembered to set an alarm for classes that morning, but Snape didn't care. He was going to think of the most horrible tasks he could for the four of them to complete during their detentions with him in the evenings. The first thing that came to mind was the first year cauldrons, when he remembered that they hadn't actually brewed any potions lately. They had been working on theory only, since Snape didn't feel like dealing with their incompetence. He had his sons incompetence to worry about, and his friends as well.

Since he was lost in thought about the best way to punish the four of them, he didn't notice as they slipped out of the Great Hall, undetected by most of the people in it. Dumbledore however, did notice them leaving, and quietly slipped out of the Hall to go after them.

When Snape finally snapped out of his reprieve, he noticed that mostly everyone had left the Great Hall for their afternoon classes, and to get their things for the classes. 'Well', Snape thought sourly to himself, 'at least he's making an effort to make it to his other classes on time, even if he didn't make it to my class today.'

Snape made his way out of the Hall, with his robes billowing menacingly around him, and proceeded to make his way down to the dungeons in preparation of third year potions. They were almost as bad as the first years, in Snape's opinion.

As Harry Ron and Hermione made their way through the castle to Gryffindor tower, they were intercepted be Dumbledore, who told them about an Order meeting that night that they would have to attend, in order to explain Harry's new predicament. Harry told Dumbledore that Draco would be joining them but he didn't seem at all fazed by what Harry said. Meaning that Snape had already spoken to the Headmaster about Harry blabbing. They had to be there at 7pm sharp so the meeting could be concluded by 9pm at the latest. That meant that Snape would be supervising one of many detentions he had recently handed out to the trio, and Draco's as well.

They continued on to their tower, and when the reached the Fat Lady's portrait, they were horrified to learn that the password had been changed. And since Hermione and Ron had missed the Prefect meeting the night before, they couldn't even begin to guess what the new password was.

Luckily enough, Neville was heading their way, and they had hope that he knew what the new password was. That is, until he told them that he had no clue, and hadn't been able to get into the tower the night before either. He had seen the trio leave the Hall, and knowing that Ron and Hermione were prefects, had followed in hopes of getting the new password. The all decided to wait until more people came, since they needed the new password to get clean clothes, and their school things for classes.

As more people showed up, the trio was again shocked and horrified to learn that even some of the 7th year students who were prefects didn't know what was going on, since the password they used was apparently 'incorrect' according to the Fat Lady. Even though it was the one that they had decided on at the meeting. It had worked the night prior, so the prefects were wondering what was going on. The only other two people who should be able to change the password were Professor Mcgonnagal and Professor Dumbledore. And they had no reason to change the password without telling anyone.

By now, all of Gryffindor was stuck standing outside of their tower, unable to enter, almost suffocating on the smell of Harry, Ron and Hermione. The three of them decided that they would leave and find either Mcgonnagal or Dumbledore and see if they they knew what was going on. It was a good thing for them that Harry constantly kept his Map on his person, or it would have taken forever to find one of the professors, if not impossible.

And it just so happened that they were both in Dumbledore's office. They made their way there in a rush, since they didn't want to be late for yet another class, since they had already missed a day and a half of classes... both with Snape and Mcgonnagal in Harry and Hermione's cases. Ron had a different class than they did during first period. Hermione had thought that he might be taking Muggle Studies, and since she had dropped the class, she couldn't be sure. And she couldn't be sure of what his other class was either. Her and Harry had double Potions together, then double Transfiguration all together.

They reached Dumbledore's office just as he and Mcgonnagal were leaving in the direction of the Transfiguration classroom. Harry called out for their attention. "Professor, professor!" They both turned to face him. "Well hello Harry, Ron, Hermione," he responded to them in turn. "What can I do for you three today?" He asked, curious why Harry would run in the Halls after a teacher.

"Did you or professor Mcgonnagal change the password for Gryffindor tower?" Harry asked quickly. Dumbledore and Mcgonnagal gave him a curious look. "I know that I didn't, since we leave that up to the prefect's to decide. Minerva?" Dumbledore turned to face her with the question. "No. I didn't change the password. As you said, Albus, we usually leave that up to the prefect's to decide. Why do you ask, Harry?" She turned to Harry, who had a very confused look on his face. "Because the password has been changed since the prefect meeting last night, and not even the prefect's know what it is. Something strange is going on, isn't there? Only you and professor Dumbledore should be able to change Gryffindor tower's password, right?" Harry asked, looking at the both of them questioningly. "Aside from the house prefect's that is," he added as an afterthought. "You're correct about that Harry. And if the password has been changed, then there is something strange going on, most definitely." Dumbledore didn't sound very happy with this news. "Minerva, let's go." They pulled their wands out so they could be ready, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed suit, and they all headed for Gryffindor tower.

When they finally reached Gryffindor tower, everyone was still waiting outside, having been unable to either guess or change the password to gain access to the common room. Dumbledore ordered them aside, and walked up to the Fat Lady. "Good afternoon, Matilda." Dumbledore said to the portrait of the Fat Lady. So that was her name. "Afternoon, Headmaster," Matilda responded curtly. "Can you please explain what is going on here, and let me into Gryffindor tower so I can make sure nothing is amiss, Matilda?" Dumbledore asked her politely. She gave him a wary look-over, almost as if to be certain that he was who he looked like, before nodding her head, and swinging open. She had neglected to explain what was going on, though the Headmaster didn't seem to care at the moment.

As Dumbledore and Mcgonnagal peered into the portrait hole, a flash of red light shot their way, missed Dumbledore by a hair, but caught Mcgonnagal square in the chest. Hermione was the first by her side, checking to make sure that she hadn't been severely injured by the curse. "It was just a stunner spell, she'll be alright," Hermione explained, easing the tension of the students there. She stood up and walked to the headmaster's side, in preparation of a duel, only to find someone that she didn't know stumbling out of Gryffindor tower, apparently blind, and firing wildly since she didn't apparently know where she was. Dumbledore aimed a disarming spell at her so she couldn't do anymore damage to any of the students or to herself. Hermione caught the girl as she fell, and tried to reassure her that she was safe where she was and wouldn't be harmed by anyone there.

They took the mysterious girl, as well as professor Mcgonnagal to the hospital wing, so see what could be done about her vision, and if she could be given a calming potion. Poppy had agreed with Hermione's assessment of Mcgonnagal's health, especially since she had awoken upon arriving at the hospital wing, and saying that she could return to teaching in one day since she would be feeling some of the effects for a few days.

The girl, who still hadn't given her name, was sitting in hospital issued pajamas on a hospital bed, and looked much calmer since drinking the potion. She still seemed unnerved that she couldn't see anything. As the others were discussing what to do with her, she finally spoke. "Where is my father?" She asked. "If I'm at Hogwarts, then he should be here."

"What is your name, dear, and who is your father? Perhaps I can find him for you." Dumbledore asked her sincerely, since he had never met the girl in his life, and there weren't many people in the school at that point that could have a child of her age, approximately 16-17 years old.

The child seemed to brighten instantly, at hearing Dumbledore. "Uncle Albus!" She exclaimed brightly, before hopping off of the bed and attempting to make her way to her 'uncle'. She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. "Don't you recognize me?" She seemed quite put out that he didn't seem to recognize her. And she didn't seem able to answer what her or her father's names were.

Meanwhile, Harry was standing back in the shadows, trying to place where he had seen the girl before. He was positive he had seen her too. He just couldn't remember... Then it hit him, just as Poppy placed a pair of rounded glasses, just like his, on her face. This was the face he had dreamed of for years. In his sleep, he would always look in the mirror at himself to find her face staring back. He had always supposed that that was what he would look like if he had been born a girl, and that everyone always had an occasional dream of what they would look like if they had been born as the opposite sex. So he never discussed the dreams with anyone.

He didn't want anyone to get any ideas until he figured it out either, so he slipped out of the hospital wing and headed for Dumbledore's office, sending a spelled note that he made on his way, to the Headmaster, asking him for a private audience, and to keep that girl in the hospital wing, away from everyone for the moment. He then waited patiently for the headmaster to arrive, and when he did, the only conclusion Harry had come to was that the girl was somehow him, and told Dumbledore why he thought he was right.

"So you see, Albus," Harry concluded, "I used to have these dreams when I was younger, and since I came to Hogwarts, they went away, until this summer, so I never thought anything about it. But I still don't see how a person can be split in half like that." Harry was getting tired, though he wasn't sure why. "And I don't think we want anyone finding out about this until we have some clue as to what is going on. My only question is how would she know that Snape is my father? She acted like she expected him to be there and to know who she was."

Harry and Dumbledore sat contemplating the situation Harry was in. And this time Harry had been trying not to get into some kind of trouble, but it had found him anyway. Harry suddenly had an idea. "Did my mom ever have a personal bank account with Gringotts? Never mind, I know everyone has to have one, especially if their parents are muggles. But I wonder if she kept it? She may have left something in there for me or Snape to eventually find." He soon had plans to go to Gringotts that day.

When they stopped back into the hospital wing, they discovered that the unnamed girl had literally vanished right before Poppy's eyes. That made Harry believe even stronger that she had something to do with his dreams. And possibly even the concealment charms on him. Harry hopped that his trip to Gringotts with the headmaster would be and eventful one, and that he might finally get some answers. Then again, he might just find out that he was crazy too, and be sent off to St. Mugos... He should really learn to expect the expected as well.

_**Please Review!**_

_A/N:_ Sorry it took so long... I got writers block for a little while, but as you can see, that's over now... I will update again as soon as possible... Please review!


	8. Ch7: A Day to Remember

_**Disclaimer:**_ I only own Harry Potter in my dreams, since it really belongs to J. K. Rowling.

**A/N:** Enjoy and please read and review! Also, this chapter will be a little longer than usual, since I have so many things to do and explain in it. ENJOY!

Chapter 7: A Day to Remember

Dumbledore's plan was to floo Harry to Flourish and Blotts, then walk to Gringotts bank, since Harry couldn't apparate, and didn't care much for portkey's. That, and it would take too long to fly to Diagon Alley. And as much as harry wanted his friends with him, it had been decided that they needed to return to classes to avoid any suspicion. That, and to spread the rumor that would cover his ass for missing even more classes that day.

Harry waited nervously in Dumbledore's office, unsure of what was yet to come. Would he find anything of value in his mother's vault, or would it be a waste of time. What sort of personal items might he find, and were they magical or not. All of these questions and many more spun through Harry's mind, until he decided that the only way he would ever be able to answer them would be to see her vault for himself.

Harry had contemplated inviting Snape, but had decided against it since he would probably be too busy with classes, and was surprised when Dumbledore walked into the office with Snape behind him, and a twinkle in his eye's.

"Harry, I believe that it might be therapeutic for you and your father to go to Gringotts together. I have already taken any precautions on his part to ensure that Voldemort can't use this against him, for not delivering you to him, since you'll be out of school, and therefore out of my protection, if even momentarily. Now," the headmaster said, beaming brightly, obviously hopping that this excursion might bring the two of them slightly closer together, "off you go." He made a shooing gesture with his had, motioning them to be on their way. They both stepped into the bright green flames, as Snape clearly shouted 'Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley', and they were on their way.

Even though it was a better way to travel than by portkey, Harry still hated traveling by floo. As they made their way to Gringotts, Harry decided to take out some money to treat him and Snape to lunch, and possibly a present for his dad as well. Harry still had to ask him what day his birthday was so he could get him a present for that too.

Harry wasn't quite sure why he cared, other than it was nice to have someone other than the Dursley's as relatives. While Snape didn't treat him with any warmth, he also didn't treat him with obvious hate or distaste like his other relatives did. It was a nice feeling, Harry decided to himself.

They entered the bank, and made their way to the head goblin, at the tallest podium. Harry didn't know what to say to the goblin, seeing that he didn't have a key to the vault he wanted to enter. Snape on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what to say.

"Harry Potter wishes to enter his mother's personal vault. And no, he doesn't have a key. No one would ever know were to look for it anyway." Snape said to the goblin. At that point, another goblin had joined them, and was holding some papers out toward Harry, who figured that he would need to fill them out before he was allowed access to the vault in question.

Harry took a seat and began filling the papers out. It took him nearly an hour to get through all of the paper-work, especially since he wanted to read everything before signing anything. He went back to the goblin, and handed him the papers. The goblin went through them before nodding, and handed Harry a new key to Lily Evans personal vault. He then motioned for another goblin to come and take Harry to the requested vault. Harry also mentioned that he wanted to visit his vault, and the Potter family vault. He had only ever seen it once, and wanted to take a moment to look through it.

Harry smiled as he realized that the goblin that would be taking him to the vaults was Griphook, and greeted him by name. "It's been a while, Griphook, how are you?" The goblin seemed shocked that Harry had recognized him and remembered his name as well. Harry figured that many wizards, if not most, usually didn't take the time to learn names of goblins, or other magical creatures.

"I am well. And how are you, ?" Griphook replied. "I am also well. And please, call me Harry. Shall we go then?" Harry replied, eager to get to his mother's vault and see what it held. Griphook nodded, sensing Harry's anticipation. He motioned for Harry and Snape to follow him to a side door, which Harry knew would lead to a cart that would take him on a wild roller-coaster ride, all the way to Lily's vault.

Harry actually liked the ride, where most people, like Hagrid, did not. It appeared that Snape didn't care for the cart ride either, and Harry figured that he did his best to not have to personally go down into his vault, unless he had one on the main floor. There was a lot Harry didn't know about his father, and a lot he had to learn about who he was as a person, and not just a teacher. Mind you, there was a lot that Snape had to learn about Harry as a person, and not just as a student.

They reached the first stop, and Snape got out of the cart quickly. Harry and Griphook followed behind him, and Griphook held out his hand for the key. Harry handed it over, and watched as the goblin worked his magic on the door to the vault. The door began dissolving away, and Harry was bouncing with excitement, unsure of what to expect.

Inside of the vault was very dark, too dark for Harry to see anything. At least, until Griphook snapped his fingers and the torches in the room sprang to life. The vault was filled with books. Tonnes of books about all sorts of subjects. Oddly enough, most of the books appeared to be about potions. There were also journals. Harry picked one up and opened it to a random page. It was during Lily's second year at Hogwarts, and described her day in classes. She appeared to excel at any of the classes she took.

Harry grabbed the sack out of his bag, one that Hermione had given him as a present, that would let him carry as many books as he needed to. He loaded it up with everything in the vault, exited, and got Griphook to re-lock the vault for him. He then proceeded to his personal vault, and retrieved some money for the day. As much as he wanted to go to the Black family vault, he had been unable to even think about it for more than a few seconds at any given time. Otherwise, he would have asked to go see it and it's contents.

They left his vault and headed for the Potter family vault. Nothing had been said during either of the two trips to the different vault locations, and until he was about to step off of the cart, Harry hadn't thought that that would change. Until Snape started talking, that was.

"I sincerely hope that we find something that was worth me taking such an ornate amount of time from my classes, and from students that could actually benefit from my presence." Snape said, _very_ in character for him. As usual, he made it sound to others that he had no care what-so-ever about Harry's well-being, even though it could be the opposite case, and nobody would be any wiser.

Harry knew that he was referring to either his recent hospital episode, or the glamour charm that was keeping his true 'looks' a secret. And pissing off Snape in the process. Harry wished the same, more for his sanity than Snape's peace of mind. Harry _needed_ to know what was going on, and have all of his questions answered. All at once, preferably, but he was willing to take increments of the truth.

As they walked up to the vault, Griphook performed the same rituals on the door as he had the other two, with one added technique; he whispered something in goblin to the door, as an added safety precaution.

Harry had been too distraught the only other time he had been to the vault to appreciate any of the priceless artifacts and heirlooms in the room. He quickly assessed what he thought might have enough magic to hold anything of value, put it in his never ending bag, as he liked to call it, and grabbed any other written material he could see before exiting the vault.

Harry had no way to tell until everything was analyzed, but he had a good feeling about all the things he had gathered that day. He also realized that he would need to learn a couple different languages to be able to decipher the books himself.

They finished their last leg of the journey through Gringotts underground vault system, and Snape exited the cart last, needing a few moments to regain his center of gravity. Harry realized that Snape would be in no shape to eat anytime soon, and suggested that they go look at gross, slimy, potions ingredients (though not in those words exactly). It seemed to cheer Snape up considerably.

Harry grimaced to himself as he decided that he would either learn to like potions, or die trying, and he hoped that Snape would one day understand just exactly he was doing at that moment.

As they walked to the apothecary, they talked about nonsensical, inconsequential things, such as potions, quidditch, and Harry's plans for the DA. Snape and Harry even came up with an plan about who would teach the DADA classes. Harry would. And he would also get private tutoring on the side. Which, of course, he would need in order to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

As Snape stared at a set of gold utensils, Harry finally settled on what he wanted to get him for a gift. Harry would have to order the majority of the items made direct from specific country's, and it might cost him a pretty penny, but he had the entire Potter and Black fortunes in his name. In reality, he could give over half of his inherited fortune away, and still leave his descendants laughing, and never in want or need of anything. It would be a set of every metal, crystal, gem, or other substance found that could make an effective conductor of the potions ingredients.

He also used his god given talents to make people believe that, even though they were priceless potions ingredients, he was going to use them for learning purposes. He would start by getting Snape the gold stuff, since it was there already, a re-stock of potions ingredients, as well as some more rare components for potions brewing. He would also get him some books on potions too, just to make it a complete set.

As Snape walked around and looked at some things that he found interesting, Harry spoke to the shop owner about ordering the other items he wanted from other countries. He led the man to believe that he was apprenticing under Snape for a degree in potions, even though he figured that he would never be a master at it. The man believed him, and as Harry purchased the books, ingredients, and the golden items, Snape was beginning to come into view, so Harry had the owner shrink the items so he could carry them in his pocket. He didn't want to ruin the surprise he had in store for his father.

Snape made a small purchase of books and ingredients, and they left the store and headed for the Leaky Cauldron for some dinner. Apparently Snape could gain an appetite from looking at potions ingredients, and lose it after a ride in the Gringotts cart system.

They entered the Leaky Cauldron, and each took a seat before opening their menu's. It would be one of Harry's first times ordering whatever he wanted off of a menu, and possibly paying for it as well. He wasn't even sure what was good. Except whatever he had had the last time he had stayed at the Leaky Cauldron, even though he was pretty sure Molly Weasly had been the one preparing the meals for everyone.

He looked over the menu about four times before setting it down, frustrated. Snape just raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you recommend anything good, Professor? I don't know what half of this stuff is." Harry asked, trying not to sound stupid with his ignorance of the wizarding world. Snape looked at him as if he thought Harry might be playing some sort of colossal joke on him. When he determined that Harry wasn't, he sighed and responded. "I have no idea of what your personal tastes are, Potter, so I cannot adequately suggest something for you." He didn't even want to know what the boy might like.

"Well, so long as it isn't scraps that are days old, I think I'd enjoy just about anything." Harry responded, very bitterly. The boy's response left Snape to wonder what it had been like growing up with his aunt. From what Snape could remember from the one time he had met the woman, his opinion of her was very low. She didn't appreciate magic, and appeared to hate her sister considerably. In fact, Snape thought he remembered hearing her say that she hated magic, and all of the 'freaks' involved with it.

Snape didn't understand why he suddenly cared, but he had a gut feeling that the wizarding world was lucky that Harry hadn't arose to become the next Dark Lord. He also wondered why the boy hadn't, though the most likely reason was that he had been sorted into Gryffindor where everybody loved him, if even only for his name. He decided that he would need to have some meaningful conversations with the boy to check out his mental psyche, just to be sure he never would go dark.

Harry was getting impatient to order, since he was very hungry, and politely asked Snape what his recommendation on food was, again. Snape recommended the Filet Mignon, knowing that it hadn't been served at Hogwarts ever before, and by the boy's prior response, had never gotten a chance to ever try it. Harry nodded, and sat his menu down, ready to order. The waiter appeared, took their orders, and left to retrieve their drinks.

While they waited for their dinner to arrive, Harry decided to look through some of the books and journals he had found in his mom's vault, hoping he would find some answers in one of them. Snape offered to help him sort them out, and being able to perform magic outside of Hogwarts, it took less time than Harry had originally thought it would to sort them out.

He wanted to go through the journals first, believing that that would be the only place that Lily would write down any important information that might help him. He would have a life-time to look at all the educational books, but he needed answers, and he needed them soon. Unfortunately for him, answers would have to wait until they returned to Hogwarts, seeing as their dinner had arrived. Snape spelled the books back into his bag so they would stay in order, and they began to eat their dinner in silence.

Harry wasn't one to usually speak at dinner, or any other meal, unless he was asked a question that he couldn't just shake his head to, nod or shrug his shoulders. And from what he had observed in the past, Snape was very similar in that aspect about not talking during meals. As they finished their dinner, their waiter came to clear their plates and ask if they would be ordering anything else that evening, or if they were ready for the bill. There was one thing Harry had always wanted to try, but had never had the chance yet. He ordered two pieces of cheese-cake, with a cherry topping, one for him and one for Snape. Snape looked at Harry as if he were crazy.

"Don't you like cheese-cake, professor?" Harry asked, thinking that he had done something wrong. "Yes, actually. I happen to enjoy cheese-cake quite a bit. I'm just wondering how you would know that." Snape stated, wondering if Harry was somehow psychic. "I just assumed that everyone likes cheese-cake. I've never tried it myself, but it's always looked like it would be a tasty desert." Harry responded as if it were obvious. "That I can understand, but how did you know that the only topping I actually like is cherries?" Snape asked him again, still some-what mystified that the boy could know something about him that nobody knew, since he never ordered it at Hogwarts. "I didn't know. I guess I should have asked you first. It's just that everyone I know likes cherries. Except the headmaster, that is. He likes lemons. And candy." Harry couldn't finish the last sentence without laughing. Snape just smirked his usual evil smirk when anything funny was said.

Snape decided to himself that the boy really wasn't that bad. Considering he had compared the him to James Potter the entire time he knew him, Harry was really nothing like his adopted father. They finished their deserts, and as Snape headed to the bathroom to wash his hands, Harry quickly paid for the meal, knowing that Dumbledore didn't usually pay for anything more elaborate than necessary. He left a very generous tip for the waiter, and stood by the door, patiently waiting for Snape to finish.

When he finally emerged, Harry quietly told him that he had already paid for the meal, and that he had one place that he wanted to stop at before heading back to Hogwarts. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Snape just groaned, and told Harry to lead the way.

When they arrived, Harry was instantly bombarded with questions from the twins. Like how was Ron and Hermione, how was school coming along, if the swamp had been cleared out yet, and so on. Harry answered their questions as fast as he could, before they dragged him to the back to check out some new products that they were creating. Neither of them had seemed to notice Snape yet, but did when they turned around to explain the newest line of product. George even let out a small yelp of surprise.

Snape raised his eyebrow in his usual method of greeting someone. "Hello professor Snape," Fred responded coolly. "Your just the man I wanted to see. George, will you so kindly explain the new items to Harry while I ask Snape about my new potion?" He didn't wait for George to respond though, as he grabbed Snape by the hand before apparating away. It was now Harry's turn to raise his eyebrow's at Fred's lack of fear of his father.

"He's never actually been afraid of him, but he did pretend to be while in school. He seemed to understand better than I did that Snape needed people to be afraid of him. He's always seemed to understand people better than I do. It makes me wonder if he's empathic or something. I've never been afraid of him either, but I don't really like being around him if I can help it. Any way, these are the new joke items." He went on to explain what each item did, along with how to counter it. There were even items made specifically for people with blond hair, or people with brown eyes, and even some for whether you were male or female. There were also some new items for the Order, like sun-light capsules for fighting vampires, and powdered wolfsbane bombs for werewolves. None of the items would kill, just in case they weren't an enemy, like Lupin, but they would leave the attacker unable to fight, so they would have to run or be caught. They were also trying to create something that would protect people from dementor attacks, but had been unsuccessful in finding anything other than a patronus, and most people couldn't create a corporeal one. Harry told him that he would get Hermione to contact him with research ideas and what-not. That seemed to cheer George up considerably.

By then, Fred had finished showing Snape whatever it was that he wanted to show him, and they had apparated back to the shop. Snape didn't look happy about being pulled along in an apparation with no warning. Harry supposed that it happened enough when Voldemort wanted to see him directly, and he wasn't at Hogwarts or summoned first.

Harry decided to stop that thought right there, since he didn't want to think of that ever happening to anyone he knew or cared about ever again. Meaning that he didn't want to think of anyone getting hurt, or killed. He decided that he would need to have a meaningful conversation with his father as soon as possible. Little did he know, his father had already decided the same of him. He also knew very little about dark arts and decided that Snape should be able to help him with regards to the Veil. Even if he didn't like Sirius.

Soon they were ready to leave and go back to Hogwarts. They did not leave empty handed, however. They left with many sample packages of items intended for the Order, and even less successful wizards to use in defense of an attack from vampires or werewolves.

Especially students, and people who didn't know the spells for defense against such creatures, and not even because they didn't pay attention, but because little was known about such creatures at the times that they emerged. Harry had some theories about where werewolves and possibly vampires had originated from, but without being able to talk to someone from that era, he would never be able to know for sure.

At this point, Harry decided that the conversation was going nowhere with the twins, and decided to leave as gracefully as he could, while dragging Snape out of the shop in the process. He happened to be interested in what potions they had used in some of their products, and wanted to examine them further, so Harry bought some, and pulled him gracefully out of the premises.

They made their way back to Hogwarts, only taking a moment for Harry to stare at the newest broom, before flooing back to the headmaster's office. He wasn't waiting for them, which was a good thing as neither of them really felt like talking to him. Snape reminded him that he had detention that night, since it was nearly 9 at night, and they made their way down to his office.

Once there, Snape warded the doors as he usually did, and told Harry to clean the first-year cauldrons, again. It was a tedious task, since they always seemed to nearly destroy the cauldrons in the process of making a potion. He wondered if he had been the same as a first-year, then dismissed the thought, thinking that his potions skills were still abysmal.

Snape began grading papers like he usually did while Harry had detention with him, and Harry decided to interrupt him. He walked up to Snape's desk and stood there until he was acknowledged by the potions master, his father.

"What do you want, boy." Snape said, more as a statement than a question. "I don't know when your birthday is, and I've never gotten you a present before, but I saw you in the apothecary looking at these items, and thought you might enjoy them." Harry responded before pulling the shrunken items out of his pocket and placing them in front of his father.

Whatever Snape had been expecting, it hadn't been a present. He eyed the shrunken mass before uttering a spell to enlarge the items. He couldn't believe his eyes at the fortune that was amassed in front of him. Every golden potions making utensil was there, along with ingredients that would take most wizards fortunes away from them. The beauty of it made Snape lose his breath for a moment.

While Snape was staring at the items, Harry had gone back to scrubbing cauldrons, thinking he had done something wrong. Mind you, most wizards could never afford a gold set of potions items, so Harry didn't realize what a shock it was for Snape to receive such an elaborate gift. Most people never even bothered with gifts for him anyway.

"Harry," he called out to his son with emotion almost choking his voice. "Thank you." He said once Harry reached his desk. Harry blinked in confusion for a moment, never having heard Snape say thank you before. He then broke out into a huge grin, once he realized that his present was a success. "That's not even half of what I had planned to get you. That's all they had on hand though, so I thought it could be a small starter present." Harry responded like it was nothing.

"Just don't tell anyone, including your friends, that I have this set. Most wizards never own one, and I would never get any rest if the Dark Lord knew that I now own a set of gold." Snape spoke to Harry very seriously at that point, and Harry understood what he meant. He was, after all, a potions master, and that was his main role in Voldemort's army. Harry agreed, and made a move to go back to scrubbing again, when he was stopped by Snape who told him that it was probably better if they went through the journals that Lily had left. Harry agreed that it was a much better use of time, and sat down by his father's desk to begin.

Again, it was many hours later before either of them noticed the time, or when Harry remembered the conversation he had had with Snape earlier about him teaching defense, and getting tutoring on the side so he could still pass his N.E.W.T.S. In the next year. If he was still alive, that was. Snape decided that it was as good of a time as any to go talk to the headmaster.

As they made their way up to the headmaster's office, they talked about the method's that Harry would be using to teach others what he knew. He would also be able to incorporate some of the concepts he learned while being trained by his teachers in private. Harry also decided that it would be a good idea to continue with the D.A. since a lot of Slytherin parents would object to Harry teaching their children, especially if they were on Voldemort's side.

They reached the headmaster's office, said the password, and rode the spiral stairs up to the office itself. Neither of them were sure if Dumbledore was still awake, until they heard him say "enter", which they did. He was sitting in his usual spot, behind his desk, sucking on one of his infamous lemon drops, which he offered to Harry and Snape. Harry took one, while his father refused, as he always did. Harry swore that the lemon drops were laced with some kind of potion, but couldn't call the headmaster on it without knowing for sure. They then each took a seat, and began explaining their idea for Harry to teach Defense classes, since Dumbledore hadn't been able to find a teacher that year. The rumor that the job was cursed was enhanced by the fact that not a single teacher had returned to teach for a second year, along with the fact that they either ended up dead, or in St. Mungo's.

They also discussed starting some advanced training for Harry, since he would need it to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a few moments before deciding that their idea would be the best course of action for everyone in the school. They them began to plan out exactly how the classes would work in conjunction with the private training, and who would be providing said training. They talked for quite a time before they had the most of the details in order.

Harry's first classes would be the next day, once everyone was informed that their Defense class would resume. It would also give Harry a chance to tell his teachers that they would be teaching him advanced classes in preparation of the war with Voldemort. The three of them decided that it would be a good idea to head to bed, so they would be awake enough to deal with questions from other students, and there would be many questions.

They said goodnight to the headmaster, left his office, and made their way back down to the dungeons. Once there, Harry decided that he wouldn't be able to sleep until he found _something_ about him in the journals, and told Snape as much.

"I understand how you feel, Harry, but you do need rest at some point." Snape said to him, almost fatherly. "But I wont be able to sleep. I'll just keep tossing and turning until I decide to sneak out and break into your office or rooms and read through more of these journals." Harry explained to his father. Harry knew himself quite well now, after examining himself over the summer holiday's. He hadn't really had anyone to talk to, and even though he got his letters from his friends, it hadn't really been enough. He had only had human contact from his aunt, uncle and cousin, even though he could barley call them that. So he had examined himself, and meditated. A lot.

Harry's eyes had glazed over as he began thinking of his summers, and years before Hogwarts had come into his life. Even with Voldemort in this world, it had always been better to him than his 'family' had been. Harry had nothing against other muggles, except that they would believe the things his aunt and uncle would say about him, even when he was too young to remember, and too young to do anything bad. He was annoyed that his life had been the way it was with the Dursley's, knowing now that it could have been better, even if he didn't have Snape as a father. But he could have had a father. He could have had a normal childhood. At this point, the glazed over look had gone out of his eyes, and a fire of determination replaced it. Along with a cold-hardheartedness to his relatives. He honestly could care less if they died tomorrow. If it was a normal muggle accident, he wouldn't care. If it was a magical accident, he would actually be a little happier about it, sadistically enough.

Snape saw the look in Harry's eyes and decided that he really needed to talk to him soon. He knew that the Order meeting had been moved to the next night, since Dumbledore had wanted them to get the journals to help explain as much of Harry's unique situation as possible, and decided that the best thing for Harry at this point was to let him go through the journals. If the boy really was anything like him, he would have the questions in his mind burning away until he could have them answered.

"Okay, Harry. Let's get to work then." Snape said to his son. Harry grinned, and retook his seat. He then proceeded to immerse himself in the journals. Snape sighed, and followed suite.

It was quite a few hours later, when Snape was suddenly awoken by a triumphant Harry, whooping in happiness. "I found it, I found it!" Harry said in a sing-song voice. That brought Snape to full consciousness, quicker than his morning cup of coffee. He stood and walked over to Harry, and demanded to know what he had found. Harry grinned at Snape, and hugged him. That shocked Snape more than the gift he had gotten had shocked him. He was defiantly not used to being hugged, but realized that it was something about Harry that he couldn't change. He even admitted to himself that he didn't want to change that about his son.

He again asked what Harry had found, so Harry sat down, conjured some coffee, and began to explain to his father what he had discovered in the journals.

"Apparently, I was born as a female." Harry started off, making Snape choke on his coffee. Harry waited for him to stop coughing before he continued like it was nothing to him. "James wasn't there when I was born, and since she _was_ a registered Obliviator, she could modify the memories of the medi-witches who were present. And she was very good at charms from what I hear, as well as arithmancy and Runes. So she disguised me as James' son, fearing that he wouldn't love her, and turn her in or something. Even with the potion that you took to look like him, it didn't change all of your physiology, apparently." Harry explained quickly before holding up a picture of Lily holding a beautiful baby girl. The picture had the names Lily ans Sita underneath it.

Snape gingerly took the picture, and examined it closely. The baby girl had the same eye color as Lily, and a few other small features, but the little girl looked more like Snape than anything. It took his breath away to see the child that could have been his and Lily's. It suddenly made sense to Snape why she would do what she did. She knew that they were probably going to die, her and James. She must have decided that if the baby looked enough like James, no one would question anything, even if a child that looked something like her, but mostly like Snape and female at that, showed up in the wizarding world, years later.

Harry continued to explain what he had found, saying that Lily had time-spelled letters to reach them on Harry's 11th birthday, so that he could be some-what prepared for Hogwarts, and so he could have someone other than the Dursley's to go to, knowing that Dumbledore would have to send Harry to them until he could learn magic. But for some reason, those letters never made it to their recipients. Harry had also found out how to change from male to female at will, since it had been a spell his mother had begun casting as soon as she had found out that the baby wouldn't look like James, because it would be a girl. All Potter's always had boys. There had been no female Potters born throughout the ages that anyone could remember, including the Potters themselves.

Harry then proceeded to demonstrate to his father exactly what he meant. He stood in a circle he had drawn, and concentrated on the name his mother had given Her. _'Sita, Sita, Sita'_ Harry chanted over and over in his mind, until he began to feel a tingling sensation throughout his body. He felt certain things grow, and certain things shrink. He felt bones moving and shifting around, and when it finally stopped, he let out a sigh. It wasn't as painful as skel-gro but it was uncomfortable none-the-less. He opened his eyes finally, and looked up.

Snape had conjured a mirror in front of Harry, so as soon as he opened his eyes, he could see a stranger in front of himself. He now looked like the little girl in the picture, but all grown up in comparison. Harry knew he would have to learn to distinguish the fact that when he was in this body, he was a she, was female. _Is _female. Sita was Harry, just the female version, and as Snape's daughter, not son. Harry figured that he would never be able to look like Snape's son, since it was a spell after all. But, then again, since it was a spell, he might be able to manipulate it after all.

Harry/Sita turned to face Snape, with a huge smile on her face. She felt happier in this body, like there were no constrictions. Like the wizarding world pressuring her to save them. They didn't even know that she existed, after all. She had no expectations on her in this body, and finally felt some peace for a moment. She also felt like she had more power, some-how. She tried conjuring a new pot of coffee without her wand, and was surprised at how well it worked. When she was Harry, she had some difficulty with the wandless magic. But not while she was Sita, or at least not as much anyway. She also wondered if she would be better at potions now, too. Even though it was nearly 5 in the morning, she wanted to try brewing a simple potion that she had usually had problems with as Harry. She summoned everything she would need, and began making the draught of living dead, a potion she had never gotten right once as Harry.

Nearly an hour later, she was bottling the last of the potion, and placing stoppers in the tops of them. Snape had even complimented how well the potion had turned out, saying that if he didn't know better, he would have thought that he himself had brewed the potion. That made her happy. But little did she know, she had turned back into Harry not long after beginning the potion, so that meant that he could brew a potion, so long as he was given space and absolute silence. Snape was the same way when brewing potions, preferring silence, but over the years in Voldemort's army, he had learned to brew potions with an audience out of necessity.

After watching Sita brew a potion, then slowly change back into Harry, Snape was convinced that Harry was more of a metamorphmagus than anything, like Tonks. He also suspected that this was the reason that Lily was able to perform the spell needed to change Sita into Harry. Harry had changed back much slower than the first transformation into his female counter-part. What led him to this conclusion was simple; people just didn't know much about metamorphmagus, or what they were capable of. He also suspected that Lily had told the baby Sita who she was and what she planned to do before performing the spell, and Harry's subconscious remembered and as a result, astral projected herself in hopes to make Harry remember. There were just so many possibilities, and Snape was getting very tired by then, having stayed up most of the night, only getting a couple hours of sleep. Unfortunately for him, he still had classes to teach, and unfortunately for Harry, he still had teachers to talk to.

Snape told Harry not to tell anyone what they had found out yet, since he wanted to speak to Dumbledore first. It could also be dangerous for Harry, if someone accidentally found out by watching him change, so he also told him not to change unless he was absolutely certain that no one was around, and all doors and windows were warded properly. He then told Harry to 'run along' and get showered for the day that was ahead of him, and handed him some vials of pepper-up potion, knowing that he would need it to make it through the day without passing out and looking like a total idiot. It seemed like a fatherly enough gesture, but with Snape, you could never be too sure. Harry grabbed his bag, stuffed his books in them but left the journals to be read later, and left the dungeons with a simple 'see ya' and a smile to his father.

As he made his way up to Gryffindor tower, he contemplated what had happened that night/morning. Harry seemed to have bonded with Snape, even slightly, which surprised Harry. He wasn't used to someone being proud of any school work he had ever done. On the contrary. The Dursley's would reprimand him, and Dudley would beat him up. So he learned how to make sure he never got better grades than his cousin. Take the same classes, and not pay attention to the lessons. Harry had also learned over the summer that he had brought that attitude with him, having done it for so long. The irony was that since he had decided to buckle down on his grades this year, he would now be taken out of classes to teach instead. Harry found it _very_ ironic indeed. Harry hoped that he didn't have to go back to the Dursley's for the summer ever again, now that he had Snape for a father. Mind you, no one ever cared before about his complaints, so why would they now. Harry didn't even mind the soap-in-the-mouth thing, since it was much better than what his 'family' would do to him. Harry then made a choice to learn wandless magic so if he did have to go back, they wouldn't be able to hurt him like that anymore.

As he reached Gryffindor tower, he was again amazed to find most of the D.A. there, waiting for him to return. He then realized that he never even sent them a note when he got back _telling_ them that he was back and safe. He felt a pang of guilt for making them all worry over him like that. It also made him glad to know that he had such good friends and people around him. He had never had people who cared about him before, so he had never known how to treat them, or act around them before. But he was learning.

He gently shook Hermione awake, knowing that she would be the easiest and quietest to wake, next to Luna that is. She smiled brightly and hugged him so hard, she almost broke a rib. "I didn't know you were that strong, Hermione." Harry said jokingly. Hermione blushed in response. "I've been busy working out over the summer. I know magic isn't everything in a war. What if I lost my wand and had to hand fight? I try to think of all possibilities before they occur." She replied in a rush, trying to explain her actions like she usually did. Harry laughed, waking a few others in the process. "I didn't need an explanation!" He said, trying not to laugh, but only half succeeding. "I know exactly what you mean. I've been doing the same, and I had planned on introducing it in the D.A." By then, the people who had awoken were poking the others who were still asleep awake as well, letting them all know that Harry was back, and was safe, again.

"You've got to stop scaring us like that, mate." Seamus said, trying to be serious, but having no effect with his hair standing out at all angles. That made quite a few people laugh, and the last of the sleepers were awake. All of the Gryffindor students said bye to the students of the other houses, before entering the tower to get ready for the day. Everyone headed off to either shower, or quickly finish homework that was due that day. Harry, Ron and Hermione planned to meet in the Great Hall for breakfast in about an hour, before heading to their own rooms. Ron also had some homework that he had yet to finish, so Harry left him to it, after retrieving the new password for the prefects bathroom. Harry preferred bathing in peace, and was glad when Ron had become a prefect, because then Harry could get the password any time, and not have to wait by the door under his invisibility cloak until someone said the password, like he did last year.

Harry headed off to the bathroom, anticipating having a relaxing, quiet bath, but upon arriving he saw that someone had destroyed the door, and Flitwick was in the process of trying to repair it. Harry sat down his bag and went to see if he could help. "Good morning, professor Flitwick." Harry said in greeting. "Hello Harry. It isn't really that good of a morning for me. I suspect Peeves of doing this but without having seen him do it, I can't be positive." Flitwick responded, exasperated. "Anything I can do to help?" Harry asked the Charms professor. "As a matter of fact, there is. I need you to cast the reparo charm with me with as much power as you can," Flitwick responded, with hopes that this might work. "On three. One. Two. Three!" The both shouted out reparo, but light only came out of Harry's wand, and in a moment, Flitwick vanished in thin air, and Harry collapsed, unconscious.

Hope everyone enjoyed

End of Chapter...

Please Review!

_A/N: This story is NOT about me. I've always likes the name Sita, and I can't think of anything better. It is about my take on Harry's life, like any fanfic is. When I get an idea in my head, I usually roll with it... _


	9. Ch8: Questions

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter... Only in my dreams... J. K. Rowling owns him...*sigh*

_A/N:_

_Chapter 8: Questions_

Harry awoke, hours later, in the hospital wing, again. This was becoming a yearly ritual for him, to end up there at least once every year. He usually managed more though. He had already given up counting a long time ago, exactly how many times he had been there, after his 4th year. That's when he started calling Poppy by her first name.

Poppy rushed to his side to ask him what had happened, since it was only because he missed meeting Hermione and Ron that made them wonder where he was, and to go looking for him before classes even started. Harry told her what had happened in the hallway with Flitwick, and she frowned at Harry. She then left to go call the headmaster.

Dumbledore arrived moments later, along with Flitwick who was looking very confused. Dumbledore asked Harry to repeat what he had seen in the hallway. Once Harry finished, Dumbledore turned to Flitwick and asked him what had happened that morning. Flitwick told Dumbledore that he had spent the morning with Mcgonnagal, making plans for Halloween decorations that year. Dumbledore then disappeared to find Mcgonnagal to confirm Flitwick's alibi.

When he returned, he had Mcgonnagal with him, who looked just as confused as Flitwick looked. Apparently Dumbledore had explained what had happened, en-route, so she wouldn't be as confused when she got there. Even so, she was still pretty confused as to why Harry thought he head seen Flitwick, when she knew for a fact that he had been with her the whole morning, until classes were scheduled to start. Dumbledore and Poppy then performed some spells on the three of them to see if their memories had been modified, or something similar, but came up empty. So that meant that Harry really had seen Flitwick in the hall, while at the same time, he was with Mcgonnagal.

They began to worry that someone was in the castle, since this wasn't the first time Harry had seen someone who wasn't really there. He had seen himself as a female, even before he had known what he looked like, so it sounded like whoever it was knew more about Harry than he himself or Dumbledore knew. And that was a scary thought.

Harry, on the other hand, had his own theory. He had finally snapped, and had gone crazy. It seemed the most likely to him, but as he suggested it, his explanation was blown off by Poppy, who said that if he had gone insane, she would have detected it in him long ago. That made him feel slightly better.

At that exact point, Snape came storming through the hospital wing doors, more pissed off than Harry had ever seen him. Harry realized that the other teachers in the room, save Dumbledore, had no clue that he was Harry's real father. They were supposed to learn that truth later, at the Order meeting. Harry fruitlessly hoped that he would remember this fact, but of course, he didn't.

"Just what in the HELL do you think your doing!" He more yelled than asked Harry. "Twice in one week! Are you trying to kill me from stress? And then I only found out that you were here because some of my Slytherin students were talking about it! And you," Snape said, turning to Dumbledore, "how dare you not contact me and tell me that my son is in the hospital!" He finally finished yelling at Harry and Dumbledore long enough for one of them to try and explain. Snape also didn't seem to notice that he had called Harry his son. The other three teachers looked even more confused and shocked even.

"Well, Severus," Dumbledore began, "I would have assumed that you were in the middle of teaching a class, and I know how much you dislike being interrupted, so I decided to wait and tell you after classes that Harry was in the hospital wing, and why. He was not seriously harmed, so I figured that you would be more upset if I called you in here for next to nothing, since I have nothing, as of yet." Dumbledore acted like nothing unusual had happened when Snape called Harry his son.

Mcgonnagal decided to pipe up then. "And just what do you mean, _your_ son, Severus?" She asked him snidely. A look of shock and then panic flashed across his face as he realized what he had just said out loud. It was only for a brief moment though, and then he scowled at her. "I meant what I said, Minerva. Harry _is_ my son." Harry noticed that he neglected to mention that he was also his daughter. "That's not what I meant and you know it!" She was getting frustrated that none of her questions were being answered properly that morning. Then again, when it came to Harry, nothing was ever answered properly. Snape smirked evilly then. "I mean that Lily and James couldn't have a baby, so they came up with some stupid plan about me taking a polyjuice potion to help them have a baby. James didn't remember the next day, so Lily and I didn't say anything, but when Harry was born, he looked nothing like James, so Lily made him look like James with magic. One of the only reasons I had agreed was because we thought it would work, and that all three of us thought that I would be one of the first to fall, being a spy and all. And when it obviously hadn't worked the way that Lily had expected it to, she did what she thought was best for everyone." It was a much shorter explanation than the first one Harry had heard in Dumbledore's office, so Harry figured that he wanted to leave anything personal out of this one.

Mcgonnagal still wasn't able to believe his words, and looked to Dumbledore for the truth, expecting him to say that it was a lie. Dumbledore looked at her through his half-moon spectacles, the usual twinkle that was there was gone for the moment in the seriousness around them. Flitwick t looked lost. He had always known Harry as James and Lily's son, not Severus and Lily's son. He and Mcgonnagal were wondering if that changed anything in the war with Voldemort, and Poppy finally understood how Lily had been able to get pregnant when James had had so many Quidditch injuries. Dumbledore knew that they wouldn't be able to focus on teaching their classes that day with the new information they had just received, and decided to cancel classes for the rest of the day. But not after he had an assembly to announce that Harry would be teaching Defense that year.

Dumbledore told them that there would be a meeting later that night where they would discuss all of this with the 'others'. He then swore them to secrecy, and told them to get their Houses to the Great Hall. It was almost lunch anyway, so it was as good of a time as any to cancel classes for the rest of the day. He wanted to talk to Harry in private for a moment anyway.

"I want to know the exact details of your encounter with 'Flitwick', earlier in the corridor," Dumbledore said once everyone had left. Harry took a moment to think about how he would compose what he was about to say before he answered. "I was going to sneak into the prefects bathroom to have a bath, and when I got there, it appeared that the door to the bathroom had been, well, destroyed." Harry explained the best he could. "He said that he suspected Peeves had destroyed the door, and asked me to help him repair it. When I said the spell though, Flitwick did nothing but stand there and smile as I said the spell and then disappear just after a bright flash of light. The door didn't appear to be fixed, but then again, I blacked out not long after Flitwick disappeared."

Harry was just as confused with the events of that morning as the teachers were, but he was more determined than they were to find out what exactly was going on. And he had his father and Dumbledore to back him up in his quest. Dumbledore looked perplexed as well, not quite sure what to make of this information. So far, the person that was doing this had not yet caused anyone harm, but a person could never be sure when that could change. Especially if you didn't know who that person was. Dumbledore told Harry to head up to Gryffindor to prepare for the assembly, just before he left to consult one painting or another, as he mumbled to himself on the way out.

Harry dressed himself in his own clothes, again, and for the millionth time wondered to himself about who kept changing him and how, into hospital issued pajamas. Chances were, it was Poppy, and Harry was going to question her one day about it, and soon. He really didn't like being taken advantage like that, especially in the state he was usually brought into the hospital wing in. He picked up his bag, which had somehow made it with him to the hospital wing, and made his way to Gryffindor tower.


	10. Ch9: Revelations

_Disclaimer:_ I will never own Harry Potter, except in my dreams. It belongs to J. K. Rowling.

_A/N:_ I finally got my word processor to work for me... now to type out what I have in my brain... lol :)

_Chapter 9: Revelations_

Harry was almost to the entrance to the Great Hall when one of the professors told him to go through the teachers entrance. He then followed the teacher to a door that he believed to be the entrance to the Great Hall that the teachers always used. He was thinking about who or what could possibly be in the school, and hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, and as he went through the door, he suddenly realized that he was nowhere near the Great Hall. And the teacher he had been following had disappeared as well. Harry didn't know what to think, since he didn't even recognize the room that he was in, and he had been pretty much every where in the school. It looked almost like the dungeons, except that there were windows, but even then, Harry didn't know what to make of the view that he could see out of it. It appeared to be a green light, and there appeared to be some sort of vines growing on the windows, but they were not familiar to Harry, and he was pretty good at herbology, though not nearly as good as Neville was.

He turned around to exit the room he was now in, but was startled to see that there was no longer a door there. It, like the Flitwick he had seen that morning, had disappeared, leaving Harry no way to get out or to call for help. Just as he was starting to panic, something tapped him on the shoulder, making him jump into the air higher than he thought was possible for a human. He whipped around, wand at the ready in case this was some sort of trap, and came face to face with a couple of apparitions of sorts, that looked very much like pictures of the founders of the school that Harry had seen in history class, when he bothered to pay attention to Binns. For a moment, Harry looked like a floundering fish with his eyes and mouth open as much as they were, and was even more flabbergasted when they started talking to him.

"Hello, child," the one that looked like Ravenclaw said. "We have brought you here after much toil and hardships these past years. The castle sleeps so much more than we expected it to in such a short amount of time, and much history had been lost from years of war and destruction. We are not really here, this is only a spell that we devised a long time ago to try and preserve history, as much as we could. As is the purpose for this castle." They took turns talking, all four of them. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. Harry had never expected to meet the founders, or even a remnant of them, since they were dead, and like they mentioned, a lot of history had been lost since their death.

They continued on with their explanation of why they had done what they did to get Harry there, and not someone else, and what they needed him to do. Harry sat down on a chair that he conjured wandlessly, and even conjured paper and a quill to record what they were saying, as they said it. Soon their voices mixed with the sound of a quill scratching on paper was all that filled the room as Harry sat quietly, captivated by their account of history, and Hogwarts account as well.

"You are the only person to ever successfully argue with the Sorting Hat about not being placed somewhere you didn't want to be placed. Adding to that, you are the only person to make the Sword of Gryffindor appear out of the Hat. You are also a person who has all of the qualities of all of the Houses combined, the good and the bad, but choose to better yourself, even with the childhood you grew up with. The castle may be sleeping, but she does still hear and record everything, similar to a coma patient, like the Longbottoms. You can also perform wandless magic without a thought, a trait that is even rarer than a Parslemouth is. Even Albus Dumbledore has a bit of a problem with the simplest of spells when it comes to wandless magic. This is a room of knowledge that we have left behind, one of the only places in the castle that is still awake. Like what you call the Room of Requirement. It is a small part of the castle that is still awake, and since you've been using it, it has awakened even more. Which brings us to what we need you to do for us. You must figure out how to wake up the castle entirely. We never recorded this information anywhere, in fear of someone finding it and using it for evil, or to destroy what we worked so hard for. If you can awaken Hogwarts, she will protect you. She is sentient in a way, and truly knows who her children are. That is all we can tell you, for you have to find the rest on your own. You will always be able to access this room, no matter where you are in the castle. She will know that you need it and make a pathway for you. There is a copy of all recorded history that has passed through these walls, as well as a copy of unrecorded history that has been discussed or has taken place in these walls in this room. We wish you luck, child, and hope that you may talk to Hogwarts herself one of these days, soon."

Harry could tell that they wouldn't be around again and had one question to ask them before they disappeared. "Why did you make the first figure to appear to me as me, as a female?" They looked at each other before turning to him to answer his question. "That was not us. Hogwarts must have felt that there was something that you desperately needed to know, even in her deep slumber. Goodbye, child, and may you prevail over all that is truly dark and evil." They vanished like smoke, and Harry was left trying to figure out the implications of what he had just learned.

He suddenly felt very hungry, and looked at his watch to see how late he was for lunch, and almost had a heart attack when he saw that it was nearly supper time. "Shit," he muttered to himself. "They're all going to kill me. Especially my dad." He concentrated on the staff door to the Great Hall, and when it appeared before him, he took a deep breath and stepped through it, anticipating a shit show in only moments.

Meanwhile, while Harry was learning about some of the history of the castle and the founders, the rest of the school was in a mad panic of a search to find him. Last thing anyone had heard was that he was going to be in the Hall so Dumbledore could make an announcement to the school over lunch. He had yet to show up and it was almost dinner time. Snape was getting very pissed off at Harry, for making him worry, and for being late. Mostly for making him worry though. He was unable to help in the search as much as he wanted to, since he still had to act like he hated the boy, which was irritating him even further.

He decided to go to the Great Hall before anyone else, since he didn't feel like being around anyone for the time being. It was fairly empty, except for a few students seated at their respective House tables. He took his usual seat at the teachers table, and contemplated his punishment for Harry when they found him. He refused to think that the boy had been kidnapped off of the school grounds, without Dumbledore knowing something had happened. The wards would have warned if there was an intruder on the grounds, since Dumbledore didn't want to take any chances of someone sneaking onto the grounds to harm the students. He also didn't want to think that Harry may have been hurt, since he was beginning to grow fond of the boy, even though he swore that he wouldn't.

Just as he began nibbling on his dinner, the Hall became dead silent, and he noticed that the students were looking his way, only not at him, but behind him at something. He turned around to see his son standing behind him, and all at once, he felt a mixed flood of emotions fill him, many of which were foreign to him. He settled for showing fury on his face, and decided to study the rest later. With a scowl on his face, he stalked over to his son, grabbed him by the ear, and proceeded to drag him up to the headmaster's office for an explanation as to where he had been all day, and why he made everyone frantic over him.

Harry protested over the indignity of the action, but Snape could care less at the moment, and told him as much. By the time they reached the headmaster's office, Dumbledore was already there, waiting for them to arrive. He looked relieved and disappointed at the same time, but it was the disappointment in Dumbledore's eyes that disturbed Harry more. He hated when people looked at him with disappointment, especially when something wasn't his fault. And what had happened to him today had not been his fault, or his choice.

"So Harry, where have you been all day?" Dumbledore asked him sternly, more like an adult talking to a little child than a teacher talking to a student. It annoyed Harry very much. "I was on my way to the Great Hall when a teacher told me to go through the teachers entrance and when I went through the door, I was in some weird history room with projected images of the founders, explaining that they need me to 'wake up' Hogwarts. So it's not like I took off intentionally, or that I wanted to scare anyone, _Dumbledore_," Harry replied snidely to the headmaster. He wasn't in the mood to be treated like a child, and was getting annoyed at everyone who thought that it was necessary to to so. Which at this point meant everyone Harry knew and cared about.

"And what, you didn't bother to keep track of time?" Snape asked him sarcastically, which was better than being berated like a child. "Actually, no. I didn't. What they were telling me was very interesting, and I lost track of time. I have no excuses, except that this still isn't my fault. But the apparitions should stop now. They were just Hogwarts way of trying to tell me that she needs to wake up and also that there was something that I really needed to know about myself." Harry wasn't sure if Snape had told Dumbledore about the journal they had found, or what they had found in it, but he figured that now was as good a time as any to tell him. Harry also wanted to show him the notes and possibly the room he had been in earlier. He also wanted to show Hermione, since she liked history so much.

"Apparently I was born a female, and in order to hide that and the fact that I wasn't James child, she spelled me to look like a male Potter, since all of their first borns are male, and it would have been suspicious if I had stayed a girl." Harry explained. "At least, that's how she explained it in her journal," he added with a shrug, trying to make it look like that revelation about himself didn't phase him. He pulled out the notes he had been taking while in the History Room, as he had decided to call it, and handed them over to Dumbledore for him to look at. As Dumbledore read the papers, Snape read them as well from over the headmaster's shoulder, pursing his lips the entire time.

Once they were done reading, they looked at Harry curiously. Snape was the fist to ask him to show them the room, which surprised Harry. His demeanor had changed from that of a concerned, upset parent to that of a child in a candy shop. It unnerved him a bit, while at the same time, reminded him of how he thought Hermione might react once Harry told her about the room. Which he might as well do when he showed his father and Dumbledore. It would save him time, and a lot of grief.

"I wanted to show Hermione as well, so we might as well go and get her and I'll show you all at the same time." He explained to the two of them. Harry wished he had a camera at that moment to capture the look that was now on the faces of his father and headmaster. All of a sudden, a camera popped into his hands, and he reacted instinctively, snapping as many pictures as fast as he could. They both looked like the proverbial candy shop had either closed suddenly, been destroyed or they had been banned for life, there was so much disappointment on their faces. When they realized that Harry had a camera, they both made a grab for it, but missed since Harry had sent it back to his room in Gryffindor tower. Snape shot him a glance that said he was annoyed, but not pissed off at what Harry had just done, and the twinkle was back in the headmaster's eyes at Harry's amusing antics.

They separated in search of Hermione, with the promise of sending a message to the others and meeting back at the headmaster's office once one of them found her. It didn't take too long for Harry to figure out where she might be, since she was a bit of a bookworm anyway. She was in the library, researching apparitions and what they might have to do with Harry. She had come up empty so far, and was just about to take a break when Harry told her about the room that he was about to show Snape and Dumbledore. Harry was right when he had guessed how she would react to that information. She looked like a child in a candy shop, just like his father and the headmaster had had when Harry first told them about the room.

While he led Hermione back to the headmaster's office, he summoned Dobby and told him to find Snape and the headmaster and tell them that he would be waiting for them at the headmaster's office, since he had found Hermione first. When they reached the office entrance, Dumbledore was already there waiting, and Snape had arrived just as Harry was arriving with Hermione. Now the three of them were standing in front of him, waiting for him to show them the way, each with an expectant look on their faces. He led them to a normal door that usually led to a broom closet, and concentrated as Hard as he could on the History Room.

When he opened the door and led the others through, it wasn't a broom closet at all like the others had been expecting. It was a spacious room lined with books covering all of the walls, and family tapestries that were believed to have been destroyed by the head of the family at one point in history. The room itself was larger than the school library by several times, and had history dating back further than most of the oldest libraries in history. The three of them headed off in separate directions, eager to start exploring the massive amounts of knowledge now at their fingertips.

Snape headed off into the direction of the history of alchemy and potions, while Dumbledore headed off in the direction of the history of treaties between magic and non-magic people throughout the ages recorded here, and Hermione headed off in the direction of the history of the school itself. Hermione was on the right track even before Harry had told her about what the founders had told him to accomplish for them. Harry figured that the other two would need a few days of exploring before they would be able to help him find anything useful, and in the meantime, he would get Hermione to help him search through what he figured might be useful material.

He kept a close watch on the time, knowing that they would lose track if given the opportunity, and they still had to make the announcement that was planned for lunch earlier. Harry figured he could tell them it was time to leave at around 5:30pm, so by the time they did leave, it would be about 6pm.

He took his time walking around and beginning to memorize where everything was located before he decided to look for information on werewolf and vampire origins. He found the books he was looking for, checked the time, and told everyone to pack things up for now. He also told them that he would bring them back to the room whenever they wanted when they started protesting. While they were packing up the books they wanted to study later, Harry reminded Dumbledore about the announcement they still had to make, now at dinner. They left the room, and instead of appearing back at Dumbledore's office, they appeared through the door of the teachers entrance to the Great Hall, in the hallway.

The others were a bit disorientated, but Harry was able to re-orientate them easily, and direct Hermione to the students entrance to the Great Hall. He then had a quick discussion with Dumbledore about how exactly they would announce Harry as the new DADA teacher before they entered the Hall. Dumbledore decided that Harry should enter through the teachers entrance, and take a seat at they head table. When people started to notice where he was sitting, he would then stand up, call for their undivided attention, and make the announcement for the school to hear.

Harry took a deep breath to steady himself before he entered the Hall, and walked in behind the headmaster and Snape.

End of Chapter.

_Please read and review!_

_A/N:_ Sorry it took so long... I'll update again as soon as possible. Hope you enjoyed!


	11. Ch:10 Duties

_Disclaimer:_ I'll never own Harry Potter... :( … Only J. K. Rowling had that luxury.

_A/N:_ I'll be able to write more often now, seeing as it's winter... I hate the cold, and I'm staying nice and toasty at home...

_Chapter 10: Duties_

Harry took a deep breath to steady himself before he entered the Hall, and walked in behind the headmaster and Snape. All of the other teachers were already sitting at the table when they arrived, so the only empty seat was one beside Snape. Harry didn't mind, but he and his father had to sit there with scowls on their faces, pretending to be displeased about their seating arrangements. He sat down beside his father, fixed the scowl on his face, making sure it didn't look too much like Snape's scowl, and began picking at the food that had appeared on the plate in front of him, courtesy of Dobby himself.

It actually took some time before people had started to notice that Harry was sitting at the staff table. They started nudging people beside them and pointing to Harry. It was only when the whispers began when Dumbledore stood up to begin his announcement. He held his hands up for silence, and began.

"I was supposed to make this announcement at lunch earlier today, but was unable to do so when Harry appeared to be missing, but as you can all see, he has been found, and is safe. The announcement I had wanted to make was regarding your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Your new teacher will be, Professor Harry Potter." Dumbledore had to stop his speech at that moment, since most of the students were yelling too loudly for him to be heard without magic. He let them yell for a few moments before calling for silence once again. "Harry will be your new DADA teacher, since I have been unable to find an adequate replacement for this year. As for those of you who will be unable to take his class, the DA will be reconstructed this year, as a school club. Anyone who wishes to join will be able to do so, and once I have all of the preparations before me, and am able to approve the lesson plans, I will announce when you can begin attending this new club. Professor Harry will begin teaching classes tomorrow, so your usual lesson plan will resume. That is all." Dumbledore finished his speech, sat down, and began eating his dinner elegantly.

Harry was glad that he was sitting up at the teachers table so no one would be able to ask him any questions. He figured that he would get enough of that later that night. Which reminded him... He and his friends (and Draco, Harry couldn't consider him a friend just yet) still had an Order meeting to attend in just a few hours. He spent those few hours trying to figure out the lesson plan that he would use, and also wondering if this changed where he would be staying in the castle now.

Soon enough, it was time for Harry and the 'gang' to head up to Dumbledore's office to attend the Order meeting. Harry was dreading telling yet another group of people that he wasn't really James' son, but he had to go through with it, for himself and for Snape. No one at the meeting would believe this revelation if Harry wasn't there, but thankfully, his friends would be there with him to support him. Harry also hoped that he wouldn't yet have to reveal that he wasn't technically born as a male, but then again, it might just be easier to tell everyone everything all at once instead of waiting.

Harry needed to talk to his father and Snape before the meeting began, so he told the others to wait at the bottom of the entrance to Dumbledore's office until he was ready for them to enter. They politely agreed (with the exception of Draco, who was a little miffed about being ordered to wait), and Harry ascended the spiral stairway to the office, and entered the room after a short knock on the door.

"I needed to know exactly what we were going to be telling everyone at the meeting." He said to Dumbledore as soon as the door to his office was closed. "I figured that we should tell them everything we know at the moment, with the exception of that room you discovered today. And I believe that your father has found a method to keep you disguised as a boy while looking like his son." Dumbledore explained to Harry shortly. Snape added a comment once he was done. "Mind you, this is a spell that will make you look like the opposite sex of what you would really look like, I needed to try it on you first to be sure that it would work. This should make you look like what you would if you were born a male, so we can ease the others into the reality that you aren't James son, or a male." Snape then raised his wand and murmured a spell that Harry was unable to hear, and Harry suddenly felt a tingle throughout his body. A few moments later, the tingling stopped, and Dumbledore summoned a mirror for Harry to look at himself in.

He looked like the female version of himself, but he could tell there were some differences. His face wasn't as feminine, and his cheeks were a little sharper. He still had the same ears and eye's, though his nose was a little sharper as well. His eyes were also not as round anymore, but almost almond shaped. All in all, he thought that he looked good as a male Snape, much better than he though he would. And with the look that his father was giving him, he had suspected less favorable features for Harry as well.

He then muttered the counter-curse, and again Harry couldn't hear what it was. "So were going to ease everyone into the fact that you aren't James son first, then show them that you aren't even a male after they've had a chance to absorb that fact first. But I would like to see what you look like as a female first, so it isn't a shock to me, since I am supposed to know all of the same information as the two of you know." Dumbledore requested of Harry. Harry nodded his head, grabbed a piece of chalk that was in his bag, and proceeded to draw a circle on the floor of Dumbledore's office. He then stood in the circle like he had when he had shown Snape, and concentrated on his female given name. 'Sita, Sita, Sita... I am Sita.' Harry thought his mantra to himself a few more times for good measure, and when he opened his eyes, he was a female again. "I still don't feel comfortable in this body, even though I know I should." Harry told his father and Dumbledore. "You only have to do it once more for the Order to see, and were making everyone in that room swear a Wizard's Oath so no one can let anything slip, or tell anyone else on purpose, seeing that I believe that there may be a spy in our midst." Dumbledore said to Harry, trying to comfort him.

"Well, now that we know what we'll be telling everyone at the meeting, I think you should call your friends up here so we can begin the meeting, don't you agree, Harry?" Dumbledore obviously didn't want Harry to feel uncomfortable, so he was giving him the option of not telling anyone else, even if that wasn't what he said with words. But Harry was as ready as he would ever be, and nodded his head in agreement with the Headmaster. "I'll get them," Harry said before reaching for the door to open it. When he did open the door, however, he didn't have to go far since the others were waiting outside with their ears pressed against the door, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation he was having with the headmaster and his father. Harry just rolled his eyes, helped them up, and let them into the office.

The door closed behind them, and Dumbledore stood up from his seat, walked over to the fireplace, and threw some floo powder into the flames. He then called everyone over to the fireplace and held out a piece of paper with the destination on it for them to read quickly, before he tossed the not into the fire. He then instructed them to stand in the fireplace together, and think of their destination, not say it. They did so, and were surprised when it actually worked, seeing as one usually had to say the location to get the floo network to work. Then again, Dumbledore was as unusual of a person as one would find, and had many tricks up his sleeve's.

They arrived in a manor of sorts, one Harry didn't recognize. The others with him didn't seem to recognize the manor either, which was unusual for Draco. He knew almost every wizarding family in Britain, and the ones he didn't know, he had been shown pictures of their houses and dwellings, and especially their manor houses. His father had wanted him to be able to recognize any that he might possibly enter, for all of the good it would do a person. Snape and Dumbledore arrived moments later, and Dumbledore gave a brief explanation of where they were before continuing to the meeting room. "We are currently hidden in an old family estate that I have recently discovered. It was believed to have been destroyed many centuries ago, and can only be accessed if a member of the family grants you the right to be in it. Very old magic."

They made their way to where the meeting would be held, following Dumbledore so they wouldn't get lost, and were stunned when they entered a large library, brightly light, with many paintings of Dumbledore's ancestors who greeted them all cheerfully, each one offering some sort of candy to everyone. Even Ron was impressed with the library, which was saying something. There was a large, round table situated in the middle of the room for everyone to sit at, and it appeared that everyone who would be attending the meeting was already present. The each took a seat, sitting close together knowing that Harry would be being yelled at by many people momentarily, and wanting to support him. Draco wasn't made aware of what kind of meeting they would be attending, but he wasn't stupid, and soon had it figured out.

"This is one of those Order meetings, isn't it?" He asked Harry quietly, not wanting to be heard or noticed by anyone. They would notice him soon enough when Dumbledore announced that he would be attending the meeting, and why. "Yes, Draco, this is an Order meeting. And don't worry. Everyone here is going to be sworn to a Wizards Oath before they hear anything. And I slipped my invisibility cloak on you when we got here so no one would see you until you were ready." Harry told his new 'friend'. Harry felt like protecting him for some reason, more than he usually felt like for anyone else, and he didn't understand why. Harry decided he would analyze his feelings later, when he had more time. Draco seemed happy with Harry's answer, and stayed quiet until Dumbledore stood up to start the meeting.

"Welcome, everyone." Dumbledore began cheerfully. "Before we begin tonight's meeting, I must request that you all take a Wizards Oath, as much of what we are going to be discussing tonight is sensitive and classified to those involved." Everyone at the table except Harry, Snape, Ron, Hermione and Draco looked at Dumbledore with some measure of shock. Very few people needed to use a Wizards Oath these days, since there were less obtrusive spells out there, and for Dumbledore to request a Wizards Oath, they knew it must be very sensitive information. "If you do not wish to take the Oath, I must request that you leave the meeting for now, until what needs to be said is done." Dumbledore was at least giving them the option of staying or going, but they were all too intrigued with what could be so important to leave. So they all agreed to take the Wizards Oath before proceeding. Dumbledore then had them all place their hands on the table, palm up, in the hand of the person next to them, and recite the same words that he said. "I solemnly swear to hold my tongue, not to speak until the war is done, lest those words that I let slip, act upon myself as a whip. As we speak these words of promised truth, the binding begins with the youth." And with that said, everyone there began to glow a bright golden hue, beginning with the youth, like Dumbledore said. Then, the light began to pulse around them, and circle the table from one person to another, getting brighter each time it went around the table, until it finally stopped at Dumbledore, who stood there taking it all in until the light was completely absorbed by himself. The only person who could now tell someone outside of this room was Dumbledore, who acted as a sort of secret keeper.

"Now, let us begin this meeting. To start off, I'm not sure if everyone has noticed, but young had decided to join us for this meeting tonight, since he was part of an Oath himself and we would not be able to discuss this without his presence here tonight. That is not why I needed you to take a Wizards Oath, however. What we will be discussing tonight regards Harry Potter, and an issue regarding his parenting. overheard a conversation involving the details that I will be reveling to you, and had to be sworn to an Oath to keep it a secret, more for his safety than for Harry's. He could not be held responsible for not divulging these secrets to his father this way, since he no longer wishes to follow what his parents want for him. James Potter was not Harry's father." Dumbledore had to stop talking since everyone sitting at the table bolted out of their seats with their own cries of protest and outrage. Statements such as, "he looks just like James!" "are you mad, Albus?" and other statements such as, "how could you say such things about Lily and James?".

Dumbledore waited for everyone to calm down before he began explaining again. He seemed to have to do that a lot lately. "As I said, Harry is not James' son, but he is Lily's child. She was having issues having a child with James, due to many injuries that he sustained during Quidditch games as you all should know about him, and asked someone for help in that aspect. They all discussed it, but at the time they were all drinking, so in the morning James didn't remember, and Lily didn't want to remind him. When she gave birth, however, her child looked nothing like James and she knew that the plan she had come up with had not worked. Fearing the loss of the man she loved, she came up with a lie to ensure that no one would find out unless absolutely necessary. Lily told me what she had done, just for good measure that someone alive would know in case it became necessary for Harry to be told the truth. She did keep some secrets from me about Harry though, so I was unable to tell him about those aspects of his life, and he didn't find out until he found a journal she had left behind for him to find when he was old enough, or whatever her reasoning was for doing what she did. Harry's real father is sitting in this room among us right now, and you all know him one way or another. Harry's father is none other than professor Severus Snape, Potions Master and staff at Hogwarts School."

The uproar from that revelation was almost too much for some of the people there to handle. They had almost been okay with what Dumbledore was trying to tell them, up until this point. People were demanding to know why Harry looked like James and not Snape, and it was at that point that Snape decided to use whatever spell it had been that he had used in the headmaster's office on him now. Harry felt the same tingle throughout his body, and the yelling quieted suddenly. Everyone was now looking at him with shock, at what Harry suspected was his male face as Snape's son. Even his friends had not yet seen what he looked like as Snape's child, so this was the proof that they needed to fully cement the truth in their minds.

It was then that Harry decided to pipe up and add his revelation to the commotion. "I would also like to add the face that I was never born as a male. My mother knew that every first-born of the Potter family was a male, and she had to disguise me as such, otherwise James would have been able to see right through her plan. She wanted me to be safe, and she knew that they probably wouldn't live long, so she did what she thought was best for me and for everyone. Do you honestly think I would have been treated the same if the whole wizarding world knew the truth about Severus Snape being my father? No, they wouldn't. I would have been believed to be a dark wizard, even before I could talk. And the fact that I'm a Parslemouth would have made things even worse." Harry had managed to stop everyone from arguing, how he wasn't sure, but people then started to ask him to show them what he looked like as a female. And since he hadn't told his friends about this fact until now, they were now extremely interested in what was going on.

Harry took a deep breath, hopping this would work without the chalk, and began thinking his name to himself in a sort of mantra he had begun to get used to. 'Sita, Sita, Sita'. He didn't feel anything at first, so he tried thinking his mantra to himself, even harder this time. 'Sita, Sita, Sita, Sita, Sita, Sita'. This time he did feel something. His body started to tingle, and he started to feel certain parts of his body shrink, and certain area's grow. When the tingling stopped, Harry/Sita opened her eyes to look at the people in the room. If they had been shocked before, their faces hadn't shown any emotion in comparison to what they were showing now. Some people's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and some people's mouth's were open so far that a toad could have hopped into their mouth's with room to spare. Harry just rolled his eyes, sat down, and let them absorb what they had just been told.

It took everyone a while, but soon enough they were able to talk again with a fairly normal look on their faces. They had just been told that Harry Potter was not really a Potter, but a Snape, and on top of that, he wasn't even a male. Some people had even performed a paternity charm on him just to make sure for themselves that what they were being told was the truth, and not a lie. When everyone had sufficiently discussed what they had been told with each other, Dumbledore told Harry and his friends that it was time to leave so they could continue with other matters he needed to discuss with the others at the meeting. He showed them to the fireplace, threw some floo powder in, and muttered something that they couldn't hear, and the flames sprang to life. They entered the fireplace one at a time, and watched each person disappear one at a time until Harry was the last to leave. He still needed to make a lesson plan for his class tomorrow, and had no idea what kind of structure to follow. He asked Dumbledore about it before he stepped through the flames, and Dumbledore told him that there would be some lessons sitting on the teachers desk in the DADA classroom for him to look at when he got back. Harry then bid the headmaster a farewell and a good night before he stepped into the flames, and back to Hogwarts.

When Harry arrived back in the headmaster's office, he realized that he had forgotten to ask him about where he would now be sleeping, since he knew that he would now be needing space and privacy to grade tests and papers and such similar tasks as a teacher. He figured that since he didn't yet have any tests or papers to grade that he would be able to spend one last night back in the room that he was used to, in Gryffindor tower. Harry desperately wished that he could go to the Room of Requirement and have a drink after the day he had just had, but he knew that his friends would want to talk to him about him not being a guy. Which is exactly what they did after they saw him arrive.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione was the first to ask the obvious, as usual. "I wanted to, but I thought it best to leave it up to Dumbledore to tell everyone at the same time. I'm tired of doing multiple explanations all of the time. I didn't even know myself until just the other day," Harry explained to his friends. It was now nearing 11:30pm and Harry was getting tired, so he told them that they could talk about it tomorrow, after classes were done for the day. They agreed after realizing the time and how tired they were themselves, and promised to send each other a message about where they would meet later the next day. Just before Hermione left, she reminded Harry to turn back into 'Harry' before leaving Dumbledore's office, and then she closed the door behind her, saying that she would see him in Gryffindor tower in a moment.

Harry concentrated on his 'Potter' self, as he was now beginning to refer himself in third person. He could honestly do it without being considered crazy too, since he did have three different looks. That and the fact that he felt like a different person when he was in another 'form' for any given amount of time. It was also beginning to get easier to sink into another personality for Harry, though he didn't want to explain it like that to anyone else. Once he looked like 'himself' again, he made a stop at the DADA classroom to pick up his notes and plans for class the next day, before heading up to Gryffindor tower, and the last time that he was likely to sleep there ever again without becoming a student again.

He arrived through the portrait of the Fat Lady into the Gryffindor common room, where Hermione and Ron were waiting for him, just to make sure that he returned safely. The fact that his friends cared so much touched his heart and made him feel happier than he had felt in a while. He bid Hermione a goodnight and headed up to his shared room with Ron and the other 6th year boys to have a quick look at the notes the headmaster had left for him. Ron fell asleep almost instantly as his head hit his pillow, and Harry wasn't far behind him. He finished his brief glance over of the notes, put them in his bedside table locked the drawer, set his alarm, rolled over, and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. What felt like only moments later, he was being shaken awake out of a nightmare, where he was fighting Voldemort with no one beside him to support him and his decisions. They were all dead. Harry screamed again before someone forced a potion down his throat, making him fall asleep again, but his mind still had the thoughts running through them. He wished the person had given him a dreamless sleep potion, but there was nothing that he could do now, except for sleep through it all.

End of Chapter.

Hope everyone enjoyed!

Please read and review!

A/N: Now that I have the majority of plot lines down, my story can begin! I'll update again as soon as possible. Later all!


	12. Ch:11 Histories

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter... I never will... He belongs to J. K. Rowling...

_A/N:_ I've got nothing right now...

_Chapter 11: Histories_

Harry awoke to his alarm blaring in his ear. He had forgotten to turn the volume down the last time he had used it, so he was glad that he had used a silencing spell around his bed to muffle the sound. No one around him seemed disturbed with the nuisance, so he proceeded to get ready for breakfast, then lessons. Just as he finished pulling on his trousers, Dobby popped into the room. "Good morning, Harry Potter sir. Dobby has been sent by the headmaster to retrieve you before lessons begin. He wishes to speak to you." "Thank you, Dobby. I'll be down in just a moment, I have to grab a few things first. Is he in the Great Hall or his office?" Harry asked the house-elf. "The headmaster is in the Great Hall, would you like Dobby to tell him you'll be down momentarily, Mister Harry Potter sir?" Dobby responded. "Yes, please do that Dobby. Thank you." Harry requested of the house-elf. Dobby didn't seem to mind doing little tasks for people, if they were polite and respectful to him, as he was to them. Dobby bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically, more than happy to do just about anything for Harry, since he was the one who had freed him from the Malfoy family. He then popped out of the room, off to the Great Hall to tell the headmaster that Harry would be down shortly.

Harry threw on his robes, grabbed the lesson plans that Dumbledore had left for him, and headed out of Gryffindor tower to the Great Hall for breakfast, and a meeting with the headmaster. When he reached the Hall, he entered through the teachers entrance for the first time as an actual teacher. Sure, he had taught the DA, but being an actual teacher, and being acknowledged as such from his other teachers was a new sensation for Harry. He felt proud of himself that he was on the same level as them now, even though most of them would still be tutoring him on the side, in preparation of the war that was inevitable. Harry spotted an empty seat next to the headmaster, and took it for himself, knowing that Dumbledore had sent Dobby to retrieve him.

Harry knew that he would now be able to address Dumbledore by his first name, but was surprised at the reaction of the other teachers present. "Good morning, Albus." Harry said. Most of the other teachers were now trying not to choke on their food in surprise. No students dared to call the headmaster by his first name, and most of them had never called Dumbledore by his first name. Dumbledore acted as if nothing unusual had happened. "Good morning Harry. I see that you got my message from Dobby. I needed to talk to you about your lesson plans. I know I left some for you to follow today, but you will need to learn how to come up with a lesson plan on your own for the rest of the year. As for any detentions you still had while you were a student, they are now void since you wont have time as a teacher. Now, I know that you spent the night in Gryffindor tower, but from now on you wont be able to do that for a number of reasons, many of which you already figured out on your own. I will have a room ready for you by the end of classes today, and all your stuff will be moved there for you. And, as you are now on the payroll, I need to know where you would like your money deposited, but you can get back to me later on that. Now, since it is breakfast time, I believe that you need to eat a full meal to be able to handle all of those kids before lunch time. Eat up everyone!" Dumbledore finished what he wanted to discuss with Harry, and proceeded to finish eating his breakfast.

Harry was in the process of deciding what he wanted for breakfast, when a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash-browns, fruit, and a steaming mug of coffee appeared before him, settling his mind on what he wanted. He decided to let the coffee cool a little before he drank it, and proceeded to eat as much food as he could stuff into himself, all the wile keeping his manners in mind. By the time he was half finished his humongous pile of food, most of the students had trickled in, attracted by the smell of food, the only thing that Ron would ever care about in the morning enough to get out of bed that early. He was always one of the last people who showed up, trying to get as much time in bed as he could, but he would always make it in time to get every scrap of bacon and sausage he could, which tended to be a lot. He and Hermione showed up just as Harry finished the food on his plate, and he began sipping on his coffee. They waved to him, and as much as he wanted to wave back, something told him not to, and he nodded at them, letting them know that he had seen. Just as Harry had predicted, Ron began stuffing his face with bacon and sausage, Hermione looking appalled all the while. Hermione no longer ate meat, being a vegetarian, so she began nibbling on the fruit and oatmeal at the table.

Harry decided that now was as good a time as any to leave and head up to his classroom (it still felt a little weird to him to call it his classroom) and begin preparing for his first lesson of the day. He admitted to himself that he was more than a little nervous, especially knowing that he would soon have to teach kids his own age, and older. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself once he entered to classroom, and took a seat behind the large oak desk, the same one Lupin had sat behind while he was a teacher. That made Harry smile, and the nervousness evaporated almost instantly.

Students began filing into the classroom a few minutes before the bell rang, and Harry groaned inwardly. It just had to be the 7th years first, and the Gryffindor/Slytherin class on top of that. Harry didn't know why Dumbledore didn't wait a few more days, since the weekend started tomorrow, and it was the first Hogsmead weekend of the year. No one would want to pay attention to anything he tried to teach them right now. He sat there watching them for a few moments before he stood up to speak.

"As you all know," he began, "my name is Harry Potter, but from now on I will require that you address me as professor Potter." Harry heard a few snickers come from the direction of the Slytherin's, but decided to ignore it for the moment. "Now, I know that we haven't had many competent teachers in the past, but while I'm here, that will be different." It was then that one of the Slytherin's decided to pipe up. "What are you talking about? The only competent teacher we've had was Umbridge!" A few other Slytherin's pipe up in agreement. Harry sighed and placed a hand to his forehead in a sign of annoyance with them. "If you honestly believe that nonsense, then you are truly an idiot. 20 points from Slytherin for talking with disrespect to a teacher. Umbridge is now at St. Mungo's and I don't believe that she will regain use of her faculties any time soon. Now, I would like everyone to open their textbooks to page 119. we will be learning about dragons today."

That seemed to intrigue even the Slytherin students, and soon everyone had their books open to the requested page, and Harry was teaching as if he had done this for years. All of his doubts and fears about teaching had vanished then, never to return, and he suddenly felt lighter and happier than he had in a long time.

By lunch time, the whole school was abuzz with students talking about their lesson in dragons in DADA, and the younger ones were all upset because they had to wait until Monday to get their lesson from professor Potter. It would take some getting used to, but Harry was beginning to enjoy being called professor. The teachers were also congratulating Harry on his success at getting the students to pay attention to something other than the weekend. Harry tried to say that it was the lesson plan Dumbledore had given him, but the headmaster told him that the lesson plan had nothing to do with how well the students payed attention or how much they had learned. That, of course, made Harry even happier, and by the end of lunch, he was on cloud 9, and couldn't care less who he had for his next class. That was, of course, until he realized that he had his former classmates and the 6th year Slytherin students.

The other students didn't seem to have as much animosity towards each other as the 6th years had between them. Harry had once thought that it was because of him, until now when he realized that it was something ingrained into them since birth, and the muggle-borns could care less until one of the Slytherin's started calling them Mud-bloods. Harry got them to stop their bickering quite effectively when he told them that they should be calling Voldemort that as well. Some of the Gryffindor students had known already, but the other students in the room were shocked into silence never having heard anyone be so disrespectful to the Dark Lord.

One of the Slytherin students was able to recover and asked him if he had gone mental. Harry replied by telling him that all he had to do was look at the facts. He even showed them what happened when you rearranged the name Tom Marvolo Riddle. He told them that he had grown up in a muggle orphanage and didn't know about magic himself until Dumbledore came and explained it to him. He explained to all of the students there that Voldemort was a hypocrite in everything that he said and did. He then told them to be quiet and pay attention to their lessons, and hopefully some of them might learn a thing or two.

The Slytherin students stayed relatively quiet for the rest of the class, only speaking when they had a question about the lesson. Most of them seemed stunned at what Harry had just told them, and weren't sure what to make of it, while others had already decided to look up what Harry told them for themselves. The rest of the class went by smoothly enough, but Harry was glad when it was finally over for the day. He still had a few more classes before the day was done, but he knew that they wouldn't be as difficult as this class had been.

Harry was glad when classes were finally done for the day and he could relax, and think about how successful he had been during his first ever classes as a teacher. It was almost dinner time, so Harry decided to try and find Ron and Hermione to discuss who would be the new Seeker and how they liked his class that day. He found Hermione easily enough, since she was in the library like she usually was, but Ron was a little more difficult to track down. After twenty minutes of searching, Harry finally gave up and took the Marauders Map out to find Ron. He knew he should have done that in the first place, but he had wanted to be a little old-fashioned in his search. Ron was in Gryffindor tower, according to the map, but Harry was unsure weather he was allowed in there now, since he became a teacher. He decided to wait outside the door for someone to come so he could ask them to get Ron for him. It didn't take too long for someone to arrive, for which Harry was glad, and after a few moments of discussing their lesson in DADA that day, they eagerly went to retrieve Ron for him. When he emerged out of the portrait, he was all sorts of different colors, and had feathers growing out of his backside, like a rooster. Harry tried to muffle his laugh, but it was in vain. Ron stood there through it all, and when Harry was finally finished laughing at him, he asked what Harry had wanted to speak to him about.

"Well, since I am now a teacher, I cannot be on the Quidditch team anymore, so I wanted to see who you had gotten to replace me, as seeker." Harry explained to his best-friend. The thought had obviously not occurred to Ron yet, since he had a look of horror on his face from the thought of not having Harry on the team anymore.

"You're right mate, I need to find a replacement, and soon. There's a game in less than a week!" Ron was obviously not happy with this realization, so Harry offered him his help at scouting out a new seeker for the team, since he was typically good at spotting talent. Harry told Ron not to worry about it, and go back to testing out the twins new joke products, and have fun for him while he was at it. Harry now had to find Dumbledore and ask him about his new training schedule that he would have to follow soon. He was very curious about what they would be teaching him in those classes, and he wanted to start them as soon as possible, to maximize his strength and power, just so nothing would be left to chance when he had to kill the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore was in his office as always, and told Harry to enter before he even knocked on the door. Harry wanted to learn how the headmaster did that so he could do it to other people as well. He closed the door behind him, and was happy to see that Snape was there as well. One less person for him to track down later. Dumbledore offered them a lemon drop, which Harry accepted, and his father did not, and proceeded to ask why they were there. To Harry, that meant that his father had just arrived as well, and it piqued his interest considerably. Harry let his father start, since he figured that he would be a little while discussing lesson plans for himself, and for his classes, and Snape launched into a spiel about how Peeves needed to be controlled better.

"He took ALL of my notes for class for the next month, and he wont tell me where he put them. That ghost is a menace to the public, and he should be kicked out of the school for good!" Harry could tell his father was definitely not happy about his notes being stolen, and he wished that he could fix things for him. All the while, Dumbledore was listening intently to what Snape was telling him, and once he was done, he told him not to worry, that he would speak to Peeves and get the notes back for him. Snape looked put out that the headmaster wasn't going to kick out Peeves, so Harry piped up. "Don't worry dad," he said to Snape, "I'll just sic the Bloody Baron on him." He finished with an evil smile on his face, knowing what the Baron would do to Peeves. It made Snape smile evilly as well, knowing that Harry was going to do that to Peeves. Dumbledore interrupted by asking what Harry had wanted to discuss with him, and Harry was drawn back to thinking about what he hoped to learn out of his side lessons.

"We need to make some sort of schedule for my lessons, and I have a rough draft of the lessons I think that I should cover with the students. I would like your opinion on it, if you would, Albus." Harry said as he handed the papers over to him. He took his time going over the documents before nodding and handing them back to Harry. "They look good to me, Harry. I'm impressed. And your lessons will begin tomorrow, later in the evening. If that is all, I do believe that it is dinner time, and I myself am quite famished. Shall we?" He asked before motioning to the door, ending the meeting at that point.

Harry went out first, eager to get to the Great Hall for dinner, since he was very hungry from looking all over the castle for people for the last hour. It took a lot of walking, but it was good exercise in Harry's opinion. It didn't take him too long to reach the entrance, and he eagerly took his seat at the staff table, waiting for his food to appear. Tonight was roast beef, potato's, gravy, peas, and brussel sprouts with butter and vinegar and lightly salted to taste. And dessert was apple pie and ice-cream. All in all it was a very good meal, and Harry was quite satisfied by the end of it all.

Another thought occurred to Harry then; would he be allowed to stay at the school over the summer holidays now that he a: had a father, and b: was a teacher now? He had the rest of the school year to find out though, so he let it go for the moment, and settled for digesting his food before attempting to move from the table. He also wondered if he was supposed to do any sort of patrolling, like he'd seen other teachers do in the past, so he turned to Minerva and asked her. She told him that it was up to him if he wanted to do more, but that every teacher had to do at least one patrol a week, just to ensure that no one was sneaking around at night. Harry had to grin at that. If she only knew about the many times he had snuck around her while sneaking around at night with his friends, making trouble for others.

Harry decided to do his patrol that night, since he would be tired for the rest of the week, or so he figured, from the side training that he would be getting from his teachers in the evenings. Since curfew was at 10p.m. and it was only 6p.m. Harry decided to go and find Hermione and his father and ask if they wanted to go back to the Archive Room, and look for more information on what the founders had asked him to do for them. Hermione was in the library as always and was more than eager to go back and look through books, and his father was in his lab, and asked if they could wait 5minutes while he put the finishing touches on a potion he had gotten from the room. While they waited, Harry sent a message with Dobby to Dumbledore, telling him where they would be, and inviting him to come with. Harry even contemplated inviting Draco, but he still wasn't able to fully trust him just yet.

A few moments before they left the lab, Dumbledore appeared, eager to look at the books again. When Snape was finally ready, Harry opened to lab door to reveal the room again, and everyone headed off in a different direction, again. Harry sighed, knowing that they would have to do this a few more times before they would be able to help him look for answers to his task of waking the castle from her slumber. He told them all that they could stay until 9:30p.m. when they would have to leave so he could patrol, so that gave them 3 and ½ hrs to go nuts looking through books. He then went off in his own direction, hoping to find more answers about werewolves and vampires, where they came from, and if they could be cured by anything. He set his watch just to make sure that he didn't lose track of time, like he always did, and began reading.

Two hours later, Harry stretched out on a sofa that he had conjured up (after having conjured everyone else something to sit on) and put the third book with the same regurgitated non-sense in it as every other book he had read on werewolves down and rolled his eyes. He stood up, walked over to the shelf, put it back in its proper place and scanned the titles again. He came across a book with an interesting title, 'Potions for Wolves', picked it out, and began reading, hoping to find something interesting in it but expecting the same non-sense as usual. He was shocked when only a few pages in, he found the answers he had been looking for. It described a very detailed experiment the alchemist was attempting, the outcome of which was to be able to turn into a wolf or any other animal at will, using a potion consisting of ingredients that even Harry as a second year knew not to mix. After successfully attempting it on a muggle, the alchemist attempted it on himself, with no immediate results, so they wrote off the project, and threw everything away. When the full moon came, something was triggered in the wizard, and he transformed into a wolf, but not as he had intended, meaning to have full control over his actions as the muggle had had while he was transformed, and as for the muggle he had used for his experiment, he died and then came back to life, hungry for blood, thus, creating vampires and werewolves. The alchemist spent his whole life trying to remember what ingredients he used, and when he finally did he was able to make a cure for himself and for the muggle turned vampire. By then, he no longer wanted the cure, having discovered that he was immortal with his only weakness being sunlight, so he now slept during the day and hunted at night. The old alchemist was also unable to find all of the wizards he had infected before he died, but did make sure to leave the cure out for everyone to find, unfortunately lost after he died when his house was burned to the ground. He had luckily sent a copy to some of his trusted friends, and one managed to make its way to Salazar Slytherin, who brought it to Hogwarts, knowing that from that point forward, there would forever be at least one copy, waiting to be found by the right person. When Harry finished absorbing all of that information, (a letter from the alchemist and from Salazar) he was shocked to read the names of the alchemist and the first ever vampire. He quickly ran to the family tapestries to confirm what he was reading, passing the others who were looking at him curiously now. Once confirmed, he fell back into a chair he quickly conjured so he didn't land on his ass, and told everyone to sit, so they didn't fall on their asses when he told them what he had just learned. "I just read in this book about how vampires and werewolves came into existence, and who the first ones ever were, and who their descendants now are." Harry paused for a moment, gathering the words in his mind. "The Weasly's are descendants of the first vampire, and Dumbledore is a descendant of the first werewolf." Harry stopped there for a moment while everyone slowly got over their shock, including himself. Once they were able to ask questions again, they were flying at him a million a minute. He had to yell at them to stop, and ask one at a time. Hermione was first, asking him to read everything so they would know what he knew. Once Harry finished reading, everyone's questions seemed to have been answered, except one more from Hermione. "Did the alchemist ever find a cure? For both of them?" She sounded hopeful, and Harry thought of Lupin. He smiled at her, and answered with one word, "yes."

She began jumping up and down, squealing in glee. "Can we contact him tonight and tell him? Do you think it still works properly? When can we start brewing it?" Hermione was full of so much energy, Harry was astounded. He felt wiped after today, having to deal with his former classmates and Slytherin's. He decided that it was up to his father, seeing as how he would have to perform the brewing. Harry didn't want to chance anything, and while he was getting better and Hermione wasn't too bad at potions, Snape was still the best on there for the job. Better than Dumbledore even, and that was saying something. "What do you think, dad?" Harry asked him. "Do you feel up to brewing a complicated potion tonight?" Hermione turned to him, hope pouring out of her eyes. Snape stood there, looking at the potion ingredients and procedure, contemplating the question, before turning to Hermione and agreeing to brew it, but only if she stopped squealing like that. She agreed, then quickly ran to get her things and a few books she wanted to read, and when she returned, politely asked Harry to let her out by the Owlery if possible. Harry figured it was worth a shot, and soon Hermione was off to write a letter to Lupin, requesting his presence at the school immediately. Harry chuckled at the fruitlessness of the action, knowing that Dumbledore could just floo him to the school in a matter of a few minutes. When Snape and Dumbledore asked what was so funny, Harry explained that there were quicker ways of of contacting someone, and the only reason that he didn't say anything to Hermione was because he wanted her to have something to do for a while so she wouldn't be pestering Snape while he was working on the potion. Harry's watch went off then, signaling the end of this trip to the best library in the world in Harry's opinion, so he gathered up the books he wanted to read, hoping to incorporate some of it into his class, copied them, and spelled the originals back to their proper sections before doing the same for Dumbledore and Snape's books. He then opened the door to reveal his dads lab so he could start the potion, and then opened it again to reveal the inside of Dumbledore's office. They entered the room and Harry went to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of floo powder, and was about to throw it before he remembered to ask where Lupin was at. Dumbledore told him, and Harry threw the powder into the flames, making them glow bright green before he shouted "the Burrow". He then stuck his head in the flames, making it appear on the other side, where Molly was waiting, obviously not expecting to see Harry.

"Hello Mrs. Weasley, is Remus here?" He asked her politely. "Yes, I'll get him. Just a moment dear," she replied, standing up to go find Lupin. She returned a few moments later with Lupin in tow, and waited to her what was said. "We need you at the castle. I won't say why at the moment, just in case it doesn't work, but it shouldn't take too long. You coming?" Harry asked him quickly, not enjoying the scrutinizing look he was getting from Molly Weasley. Lupin agreed and went to get a few things before flooing to the castle. Once he arrived, Harry was able to explain what he had just learned about werewolves, and that there was a cure, and they wanted to try it on Lupin before they announced it to the world. Lupin looked shocked for a moment before he began grinning like a maniac. He then grabbed Harry in a crushing hug before spinning him around the room, making them both dizzy in the process. When he finally stopped, he asked how long it would be before the potion was ready, and Harry had to tell him that he wasn't sure, but he knew that it wouldn't take all night, or so he thought. The potion hadn't looked too complicated, but Harry never left anything to chance when it came to potions, so he had made sure that a qualified potions master was analyzing the potion while brewing it, making sure everything was going smoothly. Harry decided to do some patrolling while his father brewed the potion, and went to find Hermione first, to make sure she got back to Gryffindor without any points lost. When he found her in the Owlery, she had just finished writing her letter to Lupin and was attaching it to an owl's leg when he told her not to bother, since Lupin was already in the headmaster's office. He then decided to bring her with him back to the headmaster so she could wait with them while Harry did his patrol for the week. He also asked them to sent him a message when they were ready to try the potion, since he wanted to be there to witness it for himself. He then left to spend a few hours patrolling the corridors of the school for mischief makers, aware of the irony the entire time.

Please review!

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed!


	13. Ch12: Retributions

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter... J. K. Rowling does...

_A/N:_ Had to fix some spelling mistakes in the last chapter... now onto this chapter! Enjoy!

_Chapter 12: Retribution_

A few hours later, Dobby appeared before him with a message from the headmaster, telling him that they were ready. Even Dobby didn't know what the message had meant, which was what they had wanted. Harry no longer left messages to chance, even using a code, ever since one of his letters had been intercepted over the summer, and cursed him when he had opened it. He was never able to find out who had sent the original letter, since only his friends and a very few number of teachers knew where he lived. After that, he had told people to stop sending him letters, just in case it happened again. They were at war after all, even if a lot of people refused to see the obvious.

As Harry began making his way up to the headmaster's office, he was stopped by a small noise, almost too small for him to hear. He whipped around to see Draco standing behind him, and Harry remembered that he had a right as a prefect to be out in the corridors, searching for troublemakers as he was, just before he hexed him for surprising him like that.

"Evening, professor." Draco said politely to him. "Evening, Draco." Harry replied back to him, now able to call him by his first name in public. Draco caught on and smirked. "I needed to speak to you about today's lesson and what you said in it. Am I able to make an appointment with you to discuss these matters?" He requested of Harry, obviously hoping to find some answers to questions that were bothering him since Harry had made that revelation in class earlier that day. "If you are able to meet me for tea tomorrow, I would be able to see you in my office at noon, if you are free then." Harry said to the confused boy, hoping to make him officially his friend by explaining things to him. "That would be sufficient for me. I look forward to tomorrow then." He finished before turning to leave. " You know," Harry said to him before he walked away, "if there isn't any other students around, I wouldn't mind you calling me Harry, or Sita if we're somewhere that's warded sufficiently enough. I'll see you tomorrow then, good night." That left Draco with even more to contemplate for the rest of the night, and Harry himself didn't understand why he had even said it to him.

Harry left Draco there behind him as he made his way up to the headmaster's office, knowing that he would show up for their meeting at noon the next day, and using the Marauder's map to avoid any other students on the way. He arrived without running into anyone on the way, for which he was glad, and made his way up the spiral staircase, barley bothering to knock when he reached the door at the top. He entered as soon as he heard the headmaster say enter, and was greeted by the sight of his father, Lupin, Hermione, and Dumbledore looking at him like he was a mad man.

"What? I thought you were going to start without me, and I didn't want to miss anything." Harry explained to them. That seemed to satisfy their curiosity of his attitude and impatience at getting there like he did, and Snape proceeded to produce a vile of liquid, bluish in color. He then handed it to Lupin after Dumbledore warded the room, who proceeded to sniff the contents cautiously before he swallowed the entire vial.

Everyone stood there frozen, waiting for something, anything, to happen. When nothing happened after what seemed like forever, Lupin threw the vial onto the floor, smashing it in the process. He then left the headmaster's office, howling like a crushed man the the whole time. Harry suddenly wished that they had tried it on someone else first, and had not subjected his friend to this sort of disappointment.

He was about to go after him when his father laid a hand on his arm. "He needs some time to think. We did tell him that this was not a sure thing, and that this cure may not work, especially after how long its been, and mutations may have occurred in the process itself in the many hundreds of years it has been since the first human was infected with this." Snape explained to him. It didn't really make Harry feel any better, but at least Lupin had known there was a chance it may not work.

Harry still felt awful that he had found the book, and got Lupin's hopes up. All the man had ever wanted was a normal life, and since he had been bitten as a child, had never had one. It had been a Marauders promise to find a way to free Lupin of his curse, and Harry had let himself believe for a moment that he had succeeded in doing so. At least Snape was being supportive by saying that he would look for a cure that might work on werewolves today.

Harry left the headmaster's office after getting directions to his new quarters, and proceeded to escort Hermione back to Gryffindor tower, both of them forgetting that she was a prefect and was allowed out with sufficient reason, before making his way back to his new quarters to spend the night alone in his own thoughts.

As he made his way down stairs after stairs, he realized that the directions were leading him down to the dungeons, which only bothered him for a bit, until he found that he felt comfortable down there after having spent so much time down there as a student in detention with his father. He smirked then, finding it ironical that he had still managed to spend time with his father, even without knowing it all the while. And no matter how bad Snape had been to him, he had always been better than the Dursley's.

After a few more moments of contemplation, Harry realized that he was being followed, again. He whipped around, wand at the ready, and was surprised to find Draco behind him, again. "You really must stop doing that. It's getting annoying." Harry said to the boy standing behind him. It was then that Harry realized there was something wrong with him since the last time he had seen him. He looked like a zombie to Harry, with skin waxy and a palish green. He then realized that Draco was under the Imperious curse, and proceeded to hit him with the counter-curse as hard as he could.

Draco went wide-eyed before slumping to the ground, unconscious. Harry then realized that it would be a better idea not to tell the school nurse that someone had been illegally cursed on school grounds, and proceeded to spell the boy behind him, carefully making sure that no one was following him the rest of the way.

He reached his new quarters, cautious of any moving things the entire way, and reset the password to his quarters so no intruders would be able to enter with out him knowing. He then proceeded to drop Draco off on the first piece of furniture he found to transform into a bed, and light everything he could in order to ensure there was on one else in the suite with him. After he did that, he attempted to wake Draco from his spell induced stupor.

It took him a while, but he eventually woke Draco, who was surprised to see Harry and didn't understand how he had gotten to where he was. Harry explained to him that he had been place under the Imperious curse, and asked him how he was feeling. Draco told him that the last thing he remembered was heading for a noise that sounded like two students fighting, before he woke up here, wherever here was. Harry told him that they were in his new quarters, since he didn't think it was a good idea to wake Poppy this late at night with news that one of her students had been illegally cursed, and he would tell Dumbledore later that day when he saw him.

Harry then proceeded to remove any spells n him to conceal the fact that he was really a girl, and made some chamomile tea to relax them both. Harry decided that now was as good a time as any to talk to Draco about what he had wanted to discuss in their meeting, and prompted him to start by asking what was bothering him about class earlier.

"Well, if what you said is true, don't you think it's prudent to let the rest of the wizarding world know? I mean, their following a fake, and they don't even know it." Draco said, pissed off at the whole situation. "I agree, except that no one would believe the truth about him. They would refuse to entertain the notion that their beloved leader is everything their trying to destroy. They would think that we're lying to turn them against him, even if they had the proof staring them in their faces." Harry explained to his friend. Draco sat there for a moment, pondering Harry's words. "So thats why you only told one class of students, so they would want to look it up for themselves and discover the truth on their own?" Draco questioned Harry/Sita, who nodded in agreement with his assessment. "I also figured some might ask their parents about it, and some people might start cluing in to whats really going on. Others, I'm not too sure about, like Crabbe or Goyle's family." He added to his reasoning.

Draco sat there, looking lost and confused, which let Harry know that there was something else on his mind. "What else is bothering you, Draco?" He questioned the boy softly. Draco hesitated before answering, careful of which words he chose, almost as if he was embarrassed about what he was going to say. "I like you better when your a girl. Something about you is calming, somehow. I noticed before, at that meeting we went to, when you showed everyone what you really look like. It didn't seem strange to me at all, when you transformed. In fact, it seemed like you were revealing your true self to the world." Draco said shyly, speaking his mind for the first time in a long time that he could remember. "Thanks. No one's ever talked so honestly with me about their feelings before." Harry confided in the boy. "I always figured that they were worried about upsetting me, knowing about my family life." He added the last part bitterly, hating reminding himself of the Dursley's. That change in tone caught Draco's attention. "What do you mean? I always figured that you had a pretty luxurious home life, with you being who you are and all." Harry looked at him dubiously. "Honestly, I probably had the worst childhood in history. My relatives didn't care for magic, and any time I accidentally performed any, they would lock me up in my cupboard, which happened to be my room up until I got my first Hogwarts letter. My uncle even used to beat me. I had to go to the hospital once with a broken arm because he pushed me down the stairs. They would refuse me meals, and treat me like a house elf, basically." Harry recounted to the blond boy who was fast becoming a trusted friend.

Draco sat there with his mouth open wide, gaping at Harry. After he got over the shock of what Harry had just told him, he asked him why he had never told someone while it was happening. "I did, but no one ever believed me because they told everyone I was a delinquent, and was always lying and getting into trouble. And everyone chose to believe them because they could see that their son was just fine, and being overly fed in my opinion. Hermione got better treatment than I did after I found out I was a wizard, even by you. I never knew that I was some special 'boy who lived'. I never asked for this. I just wanted to get away from my relatives." Harry let all of his frustrations out that he had been holding onto for many years. It felt good to be able to let go. He was never able to be this open with Hermione or Ron. They had a happy family life, so they would never understand what it felt like to grow up like Harry had. Draco was a bit different, seeing how his family wasn't really all that emotional.

Harry asked him what it was like growing up for him. "Not too much different, except that they always fed me. They might not be as severe in their methods, but they did sometimes whip me, but only if I wouldn't do something I was told to. Which is why I learned to do what I was told and to not ask questions at a very young age." Draco said the last part ironically, which indicated to Harry that he asked a lot of questions, and received a lot of punishment in return. "At least my mother never took part in it. But she did just sit there and watch. She never tried to stop him, and she never even cried once. Which is somehow worse than actually taking part in the punishments." Draco had obviously not had the best childhood either, even though his parents were very rich. They never spoiled him like most other parents did, even though Harry would have guessed differently.

"It's true then. Looks can be deceiving." Harry made himself and Draco laugh at that before he asked him if there was something else he'd rather drink, since he himself was going to get a glass of red wine. "I'll have what your having, and bring the bottle while your at it. I want to read the label." Draco responded, sounding once again like himself. Harry grabbed the bottle, along with two stemmed glasses, and proceeded to pour them each a glass of wine. It was a muggle brand, so Harry was surprised when Draco recognized the label.

"This is very expensive, Harry. How did you get a hold of this, seeing as your not yet 18? if you don't mind my asking." Draco questioned Harry. "It's really very simple to fool a regular muggle into thinking that your something your not. And a fake I.D. usually helps a bit." Harry responded with a sly grin, letting Draco know that he wasn't always the golden boy that everyone thought he was. "Why? Did you want me to get you anything the next time I go to the store?" He asked the blond teen. Draco pondered for a bit before he responded. "Sure. But it will be pretty expensive. I expect the best, of course." He handed Harry a folded note of muggle money, which surprised Harry once again.

"I thought your parents hated all things muggle. Do they know that you walk around with muggle money in your pockets?" Harry teased him. "It was actually my idea. I thought it prudent that I be prepared for any situation that might arise, at any given moment." Draco said with a shrug. "I don't care either way." Something told Harry otherwise though, and he asked how things were for Draco around his house lately, with his dad in Askaban, and everything else that was going on for the teen. "Not as bad as one would expect. My mother hasn't gone crazy, or spent the entire family fortune. Yet. And everyone seems happier. Especially the house elves." Draco said, making Harry wonder further why the boy was carrying muggle money around on his person. Harry decided to ask him outright why he was carrying around something that might normally get him whipped. "With my dad in prison, my mom could care less what I do with my allowance, and I figured that even if I had nothing else, at least I could have some cash on me for any emergencies that might arise. After all, wizarding stores will accept almost any form of currency, where muggle stores have to accept muggle money only." Draco explained to his companion. "So logically, I decided to start carrying around a small amount of muggle money on my person, just to avoid any awkwardness at the cash registers." He explained to Harry, who seemed to understand after a moment of contemplation.

Harry agreed with him silently, making note of the fact that he had never thought to carry any wizarding currency on his person. He then asked him what his plans for Sunday were, since he himself had to train on Saturday. "I don't know. I hadn't really planned anything yet. What about you?" Draco retorted. "Pretty much studying and grading papers. I hadn't planned anything either. Why, did you have something in mind?" Harry asked him. "Not really. I just figured that we could hang out that day, and really get to know each other. And I might be able to help you with that book I gave you about the Veil. I'm just bored now days, seeing how no one wants to be my friend, or if they do, they just want to be associated with my name. We could also go over my family's estates and stuff, and find some that might be suitable for an orphanage, since some kids grow up never knowing that their wizards or witches, even with family who know about it and refuse to tell the child in question." Draco said in a rush, almost like he had ulterior motives for wanting to spend time with Harry. "Are you sure that's the only reason you want to hang out with me?" He questioned Draco further, in a teasing way. That made Draco blush, and Harry realize that the boy might have a crush on him.

Harry realized that the thought didn't bother him, so he passed it off figuring that he was getting used to being a girl. He didn't tease Draco anymore about hanging out together, but he did agree to meet him for breakfast Sunday morning. From there they could decide what to do for the day. Harry anticipated going flying for some part of the day, and Draco figured that they could go into Hogsmead for a butter beer. It sounded like a plan to Harry, and once they finished the bottle of wine, Harry sent Draco off to bed, anticipating some much needed rest himself. After all, tomorrow was going to be a big day for him, especially since he would be helping supervise the third-year students first trip to Hogsmead.

He set his alarm for 8am even though the trip was scheduled for 10am, knowing that all the students would be up anyway, and was just getting into bed when he remembered he had one more thing to do. He slipped on a pair of slippers, and exited his quarters to find a certain ghost. Which he was able to do easily enough.

"Good evening, Baron." Harry greeted the ghost. "Good evening, Harry," the Baron greeted him back. "I have a small favor, if you could." Harry began. The baron was now intrigued. "What can I do for you?" The Baron asked him. "Well, Peeves has been being a bit of a brat lately. I don't suppose you could, shall we say, persuade him to be otherwise. Tomorrow morning at breakfast if possible?" Harry said to the ghost, leaving it up to him what exactly he would do to Peeves. The Baron smiled mischievously. "It would be my pleasure. If that is all, I bid you a good night." He said to Harry before floating away to contemplate what he would do to Peeves the following morning. Harry smiled to himself, and bid the Baron a good night, before he returned to his quarters. He was now able to go to sleep, knowing that Peeves was in for some shit in a few hours time, so he proceeded to slide into his bed, fold his glasses neatly beside him, and slip off into a blissful, dreamless sleep.

Please review!

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Now, onto the next one!


	14. Ch13: Say My Name

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter... J. K. Rowling does

_A/N:_ Sorry this chapter has taken so long, but I was having issues with my computer, and when I re-booted, I lost my latest chapter. So now I have to rewrite it, and as fast as possible. Hope everyone enjoys this latest installment!

_Chapter 13: Say My Name_

Harry woke fairly early, having a few tasks to complete before he had to supervise the trip to Hogsmeade that morning. He was glad he had talked to Draco the night before, having forgot this little fact in his mind. He desperately wished to speak to Lupin, and hoped that he hadn't left the school yet.

As he proceeded to get dressed, he realized that he had spent the night as his 'true' self, Sita, and that the Bloody Baron had seen him, and still recognized him as Harry. And while it perplexed him, he made a mental note to speak to the Baron about not revealing what he had seen until it was safe for everyone involved. Meaning his father, Snape.

Harry pulled out the Marauders Map, and looked over it to see where Lupin might be, again hoping that he hadn't left yet. So he was surprised to see the little dot labeled Lupin was in his father's lab, pacing back and forth. He changed back into his male form, making sure everything was back to 'normal', before he grabbed his things and left his quarters, making certain the wards were in place. He didn't like the thought of anyone in his rooms without him being there, having very little trust in most people.

As he made his way to his fathers lab, he had a thought as to how he might be able to cheer up Lupin. He could show him the room where he got the book in the first place. Harry smiled to himself, knowing that Lupin would react to the room much the same as Hermione had. He reached his fathers lab, and was surprised to find the door closed, meaning that it was locked. He couldn't hear anything coming from the other side, so he assumed that the room had been warded to prevent anyone who might be trying to eavesdrop from hearing something that they shouldn't hear. Harry shook his head and smiled a small smile, knowing that his father had always been paranoid about spies, and not realizing the irony in that statement at that moment.

He proceeded to knock on the door, wanting to apologize to Lupin, but received no response. He knocked again, louder this time, before the door was nearly ripped off of its hinges, by Lupin, none-the -less.

When he spotted Harry, his demeanor changed immediately. "Hey Harry!" He exclaimed, excited. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you for a while. How about we go to Hagrid's for a spot of tea later. I'd love to hear what your doing with the Defense classes this year."

Again, Harry felt the guilt of not being able to help his father's (meaning James) friend out of a problem that he had never asked for. At the same time, he felt taken aback at the change in Lupin's demeanor. He decided not to press the issue, which did not go unnoticed by his father, as he let the emotions momentarily cloud over his features, making him look like Severus for a moment.

Snape momentarily wondered why Harry was able to confront some people, but not others, when Harry decided to bring up the Archive Room again, offering to show it to Lupin, not giving him time to contemplate the issue any further. Lupin brightened immediately, leading Harry to believe that Dumbledore had already mentioned it to him.

"Okay. Now, you'll have to let me into the room all the way so I can close the door," Harry explained to the werewolf. Lupin gave him an odd look then, wondering out loud how that was going to help get them into the room. Harry and Snape couldn't hold their laughter back at that. It was one of the first times Harry had ever heard his dad truly laugh. A deep, warm, throaty sound he didn't expect to come from Snape, and he decided it was a nice sound, and became determined to make it happen as often as he could humanly make possible.

Meanwhile, he had a room to show Lupin, as a small consolation for the potion not working, and proceeded to explain to him what he was doing. "I can access this room from anywhere in Hogwarts. I just have to think about where I want to be, and the door will appear for me, through any ordinary door." When he saw that Lupin was still confused, he just sighed, and told him to watch closely. He stood back expectantly, and waited for Harry to proceed. And while Severus had seen Harry do this a few times already, it was as if he were watching him perform this small miracle again.

Harry stood in front of the door, with a deep look of intense concentration on his face, determination sweeping off him into the room in waves. Severus had never paid much attention to Harry when he was actually _trying_ to accomplish something, but he felt he was pretty certain that his son/daughter had never shown this level of determination or power. He secretly decided to speak to Dumbledore later about it, while Harry was supervising the Hogsmeade trip.

All to soon, Harry appeared to have finished concentrating on what he was doing, and smiled as he opened his eye's, which were bright with triumph. "I've never had to work so hard at summoning the entrance before!" He exclaimed breathlessly. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Hogwarts is trying to test me!" The thought made Harry excited and determined to rise to her previous challenge. That of finding a way to wake her from her sleep.

Harry quickly explained to Lupin that the challenge had been the initial reason for why he had been shown the door in the first place. He even told him about the 'pranks', for lack of a better word, and how they had been the castle's way of trying to get his attention quietly, and to also let him know about his parentage and the fact that he was actually born as a girl. And since neither him, nor Dumbledore had caught on, the castle had subsequently abducted him to this room. Harry opened the door just as he finished telling Lupin the background to how he had come across this vast room, filled floor to ceiling with all different sorts of books, comfortable looking furniture to sit on while researching, tables for notes that might be taken, and even a small potions lab for potions that needed absolute silence.

He left Lupin to explore while he showed his dad the potions lab. "I'm not sure if this was here before and we just missed it, but, I figured you might be able to make the best use of it, seeing how you _are_ a potions master after all." Harry smirked at Snape then, looking quite a lot like him at the moment. Snape wondered if the charms Lily had created to make Harry look like James were beginning to wear off, or if the change in his son was due to the fact that he was actually paying attention to him now. He knew he was also going to have a chat, as soon as possible, with Harry's friends. It was something that he was not looking forward to at all.

Severus smiled at his son, knowing that this was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him, and grabbed him into a tight hug. "Thank you Harry, my child. This is one of the nicest things I could ever ask for, let alone receive." He couldn't say any more, since the words seemed to have stuck to his throat, so he opted for letting him go and searching the room, his new, secret potions lab. And it made Severus happy, ecstatic even, to know that Voldemort would never know of its existence.

As he began to search the room and take in its inventory, he realized that there were ingredients here that hadn't been seen in centuries, or at all. At first he wondered how they were being preserved, but after reading a few more labels, decided that it didn't matter at the moment, and decided to go find some potions books in the library section.

At the same time, Harry was searching the vast library for Lupin, when he finally spotted him by the history section. As he started to head over to him, the figure of Lupin started to dissipate slowly, until he finally disappeared when Harry reached the spot he was standing in only moments before. Harry knew that it was Hogwarts again, trying to tell him something, so he figured it had something to do with this section of books that the 'Lupin apparition' had been standing in front of, and decided to look through them, hoping to find something interesting.

It didn't take too long before he came across a book labeled 'Hogwarts, A History: Unabridged' when he realized that this could be the book he needed to awaken Hogwarts. He smiled to himself, realizing that the castle trusted him, and him alone with this information, since he appeared to have some sort of connection with the school herself. He then wandlessly conjured a comfortable chair to sit in, and began to read from the beginning.

Once Severus and Lupin had finished their searching for books they wished to read, and copying them, as per Harry's request, they realized what time it was, and wondered why Harry had not come to find them sooner. It was nearly lunch time, which was the only reason the two of them had stopped looking through the library. They were now famished, having not eaten any breakfast yet, and figured that Harry must be hungry as well, if not famished like they were.

"Where do you suppose he could have gone off to?" Lupin asked Severus, knowing that he had been in the room at least once before, therefore giving him a _very_ small advantage in this situation. "I don't know, Wolf." Severus growled back to him. "If I knew, I would be there beside him right now, not having this inane conversation with you, now would I? We need to find him. He may have accidentally hurt himself! That could be why he never came to find us!" Severus had begun to work himself into a panic, realizing for the first time that he really truly cared for his son's well-being after all, and that he hadn't just been forcing, or faking it.

Lupin had to slap him in the face to get his attention, since he had worked himself into a frenzied worry about his child. It was the only thing he could do, since shouting his name hadn't done any good, nor did shaking him, and hard at that. Severus slowly came back to reality before he snapped into action. "You look through the charms, defense, and dark arts section, and I'll take potions, history, and transfiguration sections. Now go!" he commanded to Lupin, who spun around to begin his search, when Severus added one more thing before they were out of hearing range of each other. "And if you ever slap me again, you'll be pulling back a bloody stump!" At least Lupin knew that Snape was back to himself, if only for the time being.

Severus didn't know why, but he decided to look for Harry in the history section first, even though he had mentioned something about studying to become an animagi, and possibly teaching it to the DA, if he was successful. So it surprised him when he found Harry in the last row of the history section, curled up on a chair, reading a history book, appearing to be completely engrossed by it, not paying attention to his surroundings. His suspicions were confirmed when he had to summon the book away from Harry, in order to get his attention.

Harry sat up, blinked around a few times, and finally turned around to see his father looking at him. He appeared to be relieved, worried, annoyed, and amused, all at the same time, which made Harry wonder what had happened. "What's wrong, dad?" He asked Severus, concerned. Severus just sighed. "Have you not looked at your watch lately?" He asked his son. Harry looked down then, which told Severus that he had not. He sighed again, while Harry stood up, cursing. "Shit! I never even realized what time it was. Why didn't someone come looking for me earlier?" He demanded. "We never realized what time it was either. Your usually very prompt when it comes to getting people out of here, so I figured that you would come get us when you were ready to leave, like you usually do." Severus explained to his son. "And I thought I told you to watch your language." He added before smirking.

Harry flushed with embarrassment, knowing that he had sworn again in front of his father, and also with the fact that he had worried his father. He wasn't used to people worrying about him, and he wasn't sure what to expect next. He was used to what the Dursley's did to his when he disappeared and didn't get his chores finished, but here at Hogwarts, he didn't have any chores, and therefore never gave a thought to spending time alone like he did. His friends never even seemed to notice that he was absent from their presence more often than not. And if they did notice, they just attributed it to him needing to research something that made him curious, or something that might aid him in defeating Voldemort. He had yet to tell them that he actually needed to kill Voldemort in order to defeat him, and subsequently to survive. It was still a lot for him to process, so he kept it to himself.

"I'm sorry, father," Harry said quietly, saddened that he had disappointed his father. "For both worrying you and for cursing. Both were entirely unnecessary, and I plan on never doing it again." He spoke to Severus as he had grown used to speaking with those who became disappointed with him. Namely his 'family'. The tone was that of someone who was expecting the worst . This time, Severus decided it was time to confront his son on the matter.

"Harry," he began quietly, "why do you feel that it's necessary to apologize to me when you obviously don't mean a word you just said?" Severus tried to make the tone of his voice as comforting as he could, but it didn't seem to help in the slightest. Especially when Harry began to hyperventilate, and began to have a panic attack. Severus didn't understand what could have brought it on, but focused his immediate attention on trying to calm Harry down, before he completely freaked out.

Severus didn't understand what was going on in his son's head at that moment. The lesson of not lying had been beaten into him a long time ago by his uncle, as well as the fact that he was a 'freak', and even though Severus had not exactly said he was lying, he had implied it. He was, at the moment, reliving one of the worst beatings that he had received yet, just over the past summer. The memory was still as vivid as the first time he could remember ever being beaten for anything in his life. And as the memories played out in his head, he curled himself into the fetal position, worrying his father even further. He had given up on trying to soothe his 'son', and began to call him by the name he had been given when _she_ was born.

"Sita," he called out quietly at first, building in volume after time. After a few moments, he had to shout the name before he got a response. At once, Harry's eyes flew open in recognition of the sound of his voice, and he flinched away from the potions master, and scurried against one of the bookshelves. "I didn't do anything wrong, I swear!" He began to plead before Severus cut him off. "I never said you did, my child. Now, I want you to take a few breaths. Deep breaths. In through the nose, and out through the mouth. That's a good boy," Severus had managed to calm him down enough to sit down beside him and rub small circles in his back, attempting to calm him. The motion seemed alien to his son at first, since he flinched at the first touch, but after Severus' continued vigilance, he appeared to warm up to the comfort of the motion.

All of a sudden, Harry threw himself into his fathers arms, surprising the potions master into silence. He was unsure of what to make of the sudden change in his son. It almost seemed like he was an emotionally crippled child at the moment. Nothing like what he had always believed about the boy in the past. Harry was sobbing heavily into his robes, sounding very much like a child of three instead of a sixteen year old boy or girl. Severus hugged him tightly, vowing to learn more about both the person his son, and his daughter were, seeing as they both were appearing to be different in personality. At least from the few times he had seen his daughter.

He let Harry cry himself out before attempting to speak to him again. "Now, my child," he began again, "all I wanted to know, was why you said something that you didn't mean? I'm not going to punish you, if thats what you think will happen. I also want to know why you would thin such a thing might occur." He asked his son again, more precise this time in his wording.

"Such a thing might occur," Harry snapped at him suddenly, pulling away from him then, "because I'm a 'freak'. Just like my uncle and aunt said I was. I had to learn to speak to them without any emotion. If I did, they always took it as a sign of not being 'appreciative' of everything they offered me." Harry sneered then, looking very disturbing to Severus, as well as Lupin, who had come within hearing range and sight, due to his werewolf senses, and decided to stay hidden, and continue to observe the teen that he felt, in a way, was his cub.

Both Severus and Lupin wanted to growl with that small revelation into Harry's 'home' life, but decided to stay quiet since the teen didn't seem to be done his rant. When Severus asked what it was that he was offered form his 'family', he was shocked by Harry's maniacal laugh. "What did they offer?" He nearly screeched. "They offered me a beating any time my chores weren't done! Or any time food wasn't made, exactly to their request! And as for clothes, all I ever had were my cousins rags! I wasn't even allowed to wear his hand-me-downs! And to top it all off," Harry was nearly hyperventilating again at this point, "I was locked in my cupboard any time anything 'freaky' happened!"

Lupin finally decided to emerge from where he had been hiding, making sure Harry could see him approaching, so as not to startle him into a complete panic. Both he and Severus felt sickened by what they had just heard, knowing that no one should ever be treated like that by anyone who was supposed to love them. And family were supposed to take care of each other, and it seemed like Harry's 'family' had done the exact opposite, and more. To what extent, they could never be sure, but Severus was sure that this was the reason that Harry had never been able to master occlumency. He had always been too focused on hiding this truth from others, that he had spent all of his energy on those barriers. And it seemed like those barriers were weakening.

The two adults were not sure on how to proceed, but they did their best, considering the circumstances they were in. Harry eyed the two of them warily, calming down in Lupin's presence almost immediately, which disturbed Severus. He had never trusted the wolf after he had nearly bitten, and consequently, infected him. But he supposed that he could learn to tolerate his presence, if only for the sake of his child. Lupin had, after all, saved Harry's life a few times, which made him not so bad of a guy after all, Severus decided. He nodded to his former colleague. "Hello Remus." He addressed him by his first name, for the sake of his son's recognition. "Hello, Severus, I see Sita is a little upset. Might I offer my services?" Lupin asked Severus, and more importantly, Harry/Sita. "Okay." Harry/Sita whispered in defeat, having spent all of his/her energy fighting with Severus earlier. Severus just nodded, grateful at the moment for someone who might have at least some idea of handling children.

Lupin sat down beside Harry/Sita. "Child," he began quietly, much like Severus had, "what would you be preferred to be called, Harry, or Sita?" Lupin asked simply. Harry/Sita looked at him like he was an alien. "What do you mean? I'm 'Harry Potter, the-boy-who-freaking-lived'! I can't be known as anything else!" After he broke down again, and began to cry, Lupin attempted to calm him by humming a lullaby his mother used to sing to him. When Harry calmed down again, Lupin explained to him that he did have a choice in the matter of what people called him. Just as any one could choose a nick-name for themselves, Harry could choose between his two names. That seemed to get through to Harry, and he contemplated his choices for a moment. "Sita," he finally said, declaring the name he wished to be called. "Call me Sita. I never really liked the name Harry anyway." He added with a small smile.

Lupin and Severus smiled back at him, knowing that some dark times lay ahead of the child. Namely justice for the way his 'family' had treated him all those years. At that moment, Severus decided that no matter what, Harry could never go back to that house ever again, and told his son so. "I'm never going to let you set foot in that house ever again, Sita," he said to his child, "and I swear justice for you for their wrong-doings." Tears welled up in Sita's eyes, and he clung to his father again, desperate for any positive attention.

"Now, I think it's time to rejoin the rest of the world, and get something to eat. I'm famished!" Lupin said, doing a very good impression of Ron at that moment. Sita couldn't help himself, and laughed at his antics. Both men smiled, knowing that they had barely diverted a crisis, and that Sita was very fragile and could snap at any moment. They needed to have a long chat with Dumbledore, that was certain.

"Why don't we go to my quarters for some peace and quiet?" Severus suggested. Sita instantly brightened at the thought of not having to deal with a lot of people at the moment, and nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan, dad!" He exclaimed as he jumped up. He then held out his arm to help his dad up, which Severus took, not wanting to hurt his sons feelings.

Sita quickly copied the book he had been reading before making sure the other two had already done the same. "Well," he said to them, "let's go then!" He didn't feel like explaining to anyone why he had disappeared, along with Severus and Lupin, so he asked them if it would be okay to say that they just lost track of time while looking for potions ingredients. Even though it was a very unlikely situation, they agreed, knowing that Sita didn't feel like talking to anyone about what had just transpired at the moment.

They made their way to the door of the room, and Sita had a sudden idea. "Give me a moment, guys. I want to try something quickly." They nodded to him to show him that they were okay with waiting for a moment, and stood back to give him room for whatever it was that he wanted to do.

Sita stood in front of the door, and concentrated on the other side of it containing his father's quarters. After he felt satisfied that he had concentrated on where he wanted to be, he opened the door to reveal an entrance to a room with pictures that looked like Severus, and gestured for them to go ahead of him.

They went in first, and Sita followed behind, closing the door behind him, only to find that his dad seemed to be surprised at his surroundings. "Sita, Lupin," he said hesitantly. "Were not in Hogwarts anymore. How did you get us here, Sita?" He asked his son, neglecting to say where _here_ was.

When Lupin and Sita's jaws dropped in surprise, Severus knew that they had no idea where they now were.

End of chapter. Please review!

_A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long... I was having issues with my computer, but that's fixed now... I think... I hope... l o l. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to have the next one out soon! Thanks for reading and reviewing!_


	15. Ch14: Family Influx

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does... I only own my original ideas...

_A/N:_ Thank You, to all my reviewers, and to all who have been following my story so far. Thank you for all of the reviews, they really do help... :) … I know I left you all hanging with the last chapter, but I tried to make up for it. And again, sorry about my computer being a prat for the last while, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen again... It won't if I have anything to say about it... ;) …. Well, onto the next chapter!

P.S: Sorry it took so long but I was unable to log in to my Fan Fiction account to upload this chapter, but, as you can see, that is no longer the case... Now, on to the story!

_Chapter 14: Family Influx_

Severus was shocked, to say the least, when he realized that they were in the one place that Severus truly called home, next to Hogwarts. Lupin and Sita still had no idea where they were, and Sita had to ask his father before Severus responded. "We're at my home, in Romania." He responded quietly.

That left Lupin and Sita in even more shock. Sita hadn't been trying to go anywhere like this, he had only meant to go to his fathers quarters. Mind you, he _had_ been thinking of Severus' home instead of just quarters at Hogwarts when he attempted his little _experiment. _ Sita explained this to his father, and to the shocked man who stood beside him, not wanting to believe that they had been transported this far when they had just been at Hogwarts a short time ago. But, he knew that Severus was not a man to lie about certain things, and this was one of those.

"How are we going to get back?" He asked Sita suddenly, worried that everyone would end up in a panic at the disappearance of both the potions and the defense teacher, while some people might gossip. He knew how much people liked to do that.

Sita thought for a moment, then said "I don't see why I cant just conjure the door to the room from here, then concentrate on somewhere I know is in the castle," with a shrug. "It's worked so far." He added with a smile. His father agreed, noting that Sita seemed to be growing in his powers and magical abilities. "He also managed to not only learn the Patronus charm, he can also produce a corporeal formed one! In his third year, no less!" Lupin added excitedly. "He seems to be able to do anything, if he only has someone to believe in him. And praise him when he does master something that even a lot of Auror's and grown witches or wizards can't do." Lupin added with a smile in Sita's direction.

Severus and Sita thought about that for a moment before Severus decided that he was right, while Sita just figured that he was extremely lucky. "Honestly, I don't do anything amazing." He said to the two grown men. "I don't even remember the first fall of Voldemort, so I don't even know how I did it. And every other time I was confronted by him, or something to do with him, luck somehow managed to save me. How I don't know, but I can tell you now, that I never knew what would happen when I faced Voldemort that night in my fourth year. I just didn't want to die so I could get Cedric's body back, and let the headmaster, and the world know what I had witnessed. Then the Daily Prophet started saying that I was lying, and just trying to get attention. And that the headmaster was lying too. And seeing that I had almost immediately been shipped back to my 'relatives', due to some sort of blood-wards, because they were 'family.'" Sita sneered then, looking very disturbing to his father and Lupin, nothing like the boy they had grown used to seeing smile and laugh with his friends. "And the fact that I started having nightmares, but never saw anything in either the muggle or wizard news, I almost began to believe it myself. I almost began to think that I had gone crazy. Sometimes, I think I still have!" He finished with a maniacal laugh.

It creeped them both out, never having heard a sound like that escape his mouth before. They both wondered what had brought it on, while Severus had some suspicions as to the root cause of it all, and suspected that this last summer with his 'relatives' had been the last straw. Severus decided to have him taken to Poppy to have her perform a detailed exam of any past injuries, and catalog even the smallest scrape, or bruise. He wanted to know as soon as possible, what kind of things his child had had to endure over the span of his life, if they were normal childhood afflictions, or if it was something darker. And if it was, he wanted to help his child by any means necessary to recover. He knew what it could be like, even if you were allowed to use magic like when he was a kid. He had never been allowed to learn anything that could help until he had been to Hogwarts for a few years, when he was approached by Lucius Malfoy, and his gang of thugs. By then, he had had a certain mentality drilled into him, making him a sort of pawn.

He decided that it was a good time to have a chat with his child, and asked Lupin if he could leave the room for a while, and gave him permission to search the house as long as the doors weren't locked, or the grounds, so long as he didn't pick anything. Lupin nodded in understanding, as well as thanks, knowing that Severus was being liberal in allowing him so much freedom of his private properties. He smile to Sita and then to Severus, giving him a small nod and muttering "thanks", before slipping out of the room. He had a lot of exploring to do, after all.

He then sighed, turning to Sita. "I wish to tell you of my life as a child, and then I would like to listen to how you grew up. I don't mean to gather any pity, I have grown past that. I just wish to explain something to you. Which I will, once I'm done talking." He began, not wanting to upset the fragile child in front of him. Even though Sita was sixteen years old, Severus still felt like he was a child, especially since he hadn't been given any time with him until recently. "Now, I want you to sit down, and not get upset at what I will tell you. First, I think we need some tea." He said before calling out the names of his chief house-elves, "Caladwen, and Calanon". There was a sudden pop, a sound that Sita had grown used to from the visits of Dobby, before they were faced before two magnificent creatures that Sita had never dreamed ever existed in his imagination, let alone reality.

"Yes, mister Snape?" They inquired simultaneously. Sita noted that they addressed them by mister, and not master, which confused him slightly. They both looked like they were creatures of myth, not some oppressed beings, like Dobby had looked when he first met him. These house-elves wore nice pants, with nice tops, and hats that looked very expensive to Sita, not grubby old rags, like Dobby still chose to wear. He decided to ask his dad about it later.

"Caladwen, Calanon, I'd like for you to meet my son, Sita." Severus said pleasantly to them. They turned to face Sita before bowing slightly, saying "welcome to Prince Manor, Sita. It is a pleasure to meet you," before turning back to Severus once Sita had nodded back at them. "You called us?" The one called Caladwen asked. "Yes, I did. I would like some tea for my son and I, if you would be so kind as to bring me a relaxing one." Sita missed the slight upward movement of his eyebrow, while the two house-elves did not. They knew that he meant to slip a calming draught of sorts into the tea, but they weren't entirely sure which one would be best. They settled for a simple one, not knowing how Sita would react to it. They returned with the tea, and Severus thanked them before they left.

He waited for Sita to drink some of his tea before he began speaking. "Now, I never had a very good childhood. My dad used to beat me and my mom, and I never learned anything that could help me until I had been attending Hogwarts for a few years. And by then, I had had a kind of mentality beaten into me, so I never used anything that I learned at school when I went home. I never understood why my mother do anything, especially since he was a muggle, and therefore didn't have magic. When I became a Death Eater, I tracked him down, and I killed him for hurting me and my mother. She died not long after I finished school and moved out. I always thought that he had had something to do with her death, but I couldn't prove anything until I made him take Veritaserum. That was when I learned of all the horrible things my father had done, to other people as well as my mother and me. He had raped both men and women, and girls and boys, killed people, beaten up other kids, and many more things, even worse than what I just told you. I felt compelled to kill him, for not only killing my mother, but to get some sort of justice for all of the people he had wronged. After that, my life slowly became worse, until I no longer wanted to live. Which is why I agreed to do what I did with your mother, to create you. Neither of us thought I was going to live much longer, having begun spying on Voldemort for Dumbledore. All it would take is one wrong word, or one slip up, and I'd be dead, and made an example of so no one else would think of betraying him. Then Voldemort disappeared, but I never believed that he was truly gone, so I had to keep on the disguise I had fashioned for myself, and keep in contact with other Death Eaters so I looked like I was still loyal, so if he ever did come back, I would be ready. Which brings me to what I would like to propose to you." Severus finished saying to his son. "I would like to announce publicly that your my son, and adopt you so you never have to go back to your aunt and uncle's house, ever again. I would have to give up spying, but I think it would be worth it, just to get you away from there, and because I care for you. Would you be okay with that decision, son?" He asked Sita. He never wanted his child to go anywhere near the people who hurt him ever again, and this was the only way he thought he could do that.

Sita looked at him like he had grown an extra head, not entirely believing what he just heard. His father actually wanted the world to know that he was his son, and he was giving the choice to Sita, not wanting to do this without his permission or knowledge. And he would never have to see the Dursley's ever again. Sita had to blink back tears of joy before he responded to his father. "I would like that very much. Thank you, dad," he responded before enveloping him in a bear-hug. Severus was overjoyed then, happy that his son was willing to publicly acknowledge him as his father, and that he would never have to go back to that awful dwelling.

He then asked Sita to sit back down, and tell him about his childhood. Sita's face grew grim, and he began telling his father about life with the Dursley's. "Well, I'll start where I first remember anything out of the ordinary. I guess I was about three, and I noticed that my cousin's needs always came first. If he was hungry, he would get anything he wanted, where if I was hungry, all I got was a piece of bread and a lump of cheese, along with a glass of water, no matter what I wanted. I grew up thinking that was normal, until I went to school, and learned that it wasn't. Nobody else was wearing clothes like mine, and they all appeared to have good lunches, where I was sent to school in rags and given a peanut butter and jam sandwich every day for lunch. And only because they didn't want people to notice how they really treated me." Sita explained angrily. "They began giving me ridiculously long lists of chores, and punish me when I was unable to complete all of the items on the list. At first the punishments only consisted of locking me in my cupboard, and not feeding me for a while. But it got worse when I started to perform accidental magic. My uncle used to only beat me when I performed accidental magic, calling me a freak the entire time he did so, but eventually he began to beat me whenever he wanted, or grew upset with his work. He would beat me in all different manners, from spanking me, to using his belt, until it eventually got worse, and he started using baseball bats and knives, to beat me or cut me. I tried to tell a teacher once, and when they were confronted by her, they just said that I was an ungrateful, rebellious troublemaker, and I was lying. She believed them, and I got one of my worst beatings ever that night. He was always careful to not strike me anywhere that would be visible, so his attacks were usually concentrated in certain area's on my body, like my ribs, or my upper legs, or my back. If I were to give it a look, I'd probably find scars back there, since I couldn't ever treat them properly, like I could my legs. And I've had to reset my own bones more times than I care to remember." Sita finished his explanation with a heavy sigh, never having told anyone this before.

Severus sat there, digesting the information he had just been told, not trusting his words at the moment. He couldn't believe what the child had had to endure, growing up with relatives hating him for who he was, while he didn't know why himself. At least he himself had his mother who cared for him while he was growing up, and he had been told that he was a wizard. Sita didn't have anyone to care about him, and he had never been told that he was a wizard, even though his 'family' had known. It made him sick to his stomach to know that there were people out there, wizard or muggle, who were capable of harming a child, let alone a relative by blood.

While Severus digested this revelation into the life of Sita, Sita decided to get them something to eat, having not eaten all day. He called for Caladwen, who popped into view, and asked her where the kitchens were, and explained that he wanted to prepare a meal for his father, himself, and the other guest roaming the grounds. As she led him to the kitchen, he remembered to leave a note for his father, so he wouldn't worry when he came out of his reprieve.

Once they reached the kitchen, he asked Caladwen if she would be so kind as to find Remus Lupin for him, and direct him to the kitchen as well. She agreed to look for him, and asked if he needed anymore help finding anything in the kitchen. He declined, saying that he would eventually find everything he needed once he took a look around. Caladwen left then, in search of Remus, knowing that it may take a while, as the grounds of Prince Manor were very extensive.

Sita set to work, finding pots and pans that he would need in order to make a stew, and knives to chop the ingredients with. He then looked around to see what he had to put in the stew. He managed to find potatoes and carrots, and some seasonings, but no meat or other vegetables.

He was about to give up when Remus arrived in the kitchen, and suggest that he conjure some other ingredients up by wandless magic. He looked at Remus sheepishly, having forgot that he was able to do things like that. It was all so new to him, after all.

He then had an evil thought about where he could get the other items he would need, and proceeded to summon them from his aunt and uncle's house, knowing that they always had more food than they needed. So he was happy when he opened his eyes and saw a pile of vegetables, from peas to leeks, and a large, very expensive cut of meat beside the vegetable pile. He nodded his head in satisfaction before asking if Remus could go back to the sitting room, and try to talk to his father while he prepared the meal.

Remus agreed, knowing that Sita wanted a few moments alone to think. He left the kitchen, and made his way back to the sitting room, to try and comfort a man that hated him, and with good reason. Even though it had never been his idea to prank him so, he never believed Remus, and had hated and resented him from the moment he had seen Remus as a werewolf, attempting to attack him. He wanted to try and clear the air between them, even if only for the sake of his 'cub'.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen... Sita went about cooking, and didn't realize what was going on at his aunt and uncle's home at that very same moment.

_ At the Dursley's... "You tell me what you did with that roast right now, or I'm going to tan your hide so red, you won't be able to sit for a month!" Vernon Dursley was not usually like this to his son, and so Dudley didn't understand. "I don't know what your talking about! I've been out all day! I __haven't even been in the fridge once today!" Dudley tried to reason with his father. "I'm going to close my eyes, and count to ten. If there is not a roast sitting before me by then, I'm going to punish you, for lying, and for stealing." He closed his eyes. "One, two, three..." Dudley turned to his mother then. "I swear I didn't take anything! What's wrong with father? Is he ill?" He asked of her. She sniffed, not knowing what to say. "I don't know, Dudley-kins, I just don't know." Vernon had just finished counting. "Ten. I don't see a roast in front of me. Now, come with me boy, and I'll make sure you never lie or steal again."_

Back in the kitchen of Prince Manor... Sita had a sudden bad feeling about his cousin, Dudley, and as he continued to cook, the feeling only got worse. Once everything was in the pot, and had to simmer for an hour, he knew he had to go check on his cousin, even though he hated the boy for tormenting him all those years. But at least it only consisted of him and his gang chasing him, taunting him verbally since they were never able to catch him, since he was too fast. He went to find his father and Remus, knowing they would be in the same room he had left them in, and was surprised to find them yelling at each other.

"I don't care if you didn't have a hand in planning that prank! I was nearly killed, or worse, infected!" His father screamed at Remus. "Severus, please! I didn't even remember what had happened until you confronted me, since the others didn't want to tell me. They would have let me go on believing that they or me had nothing to do with anything bad that could have happened! How do you think that makes me feel! I never wanted this curse! I was bit before I can even remember!" Both Remus and his father were crying now, hearing for the first time how the other had truly felt over those events in their school days that nearly shattered their lives completely.

Sita decided to leave them for the moment, knowing that they needed to sort this out between themselves, without an audience. He went back to the kitchen, checked the stew, and called for Caladwen and Calanon. When they popped into view, he rushed to explain what he was about to do. "I have a horrible feeling about my cousin, and I need to go make sure he's alright. I need some help getting there, and I need someone to tell my dad where I went, but only after he and Remus are done working out their... issues, shall I say." He smirked at that, not knowing what else to call it, since nothing bad had ended up happening, like it could have.

The two house-elves seemed to understand what he meant, even if it was only to not disturb them. Sita went on to explain that he didn't know what he would be walking into, and asked who they thought would be best to go along with him. They thought for a minute, before both deciding to send both Arwen and Faelwen, since Arwen was a skilled healer, and Faelwen was a skilled fighter. They explained this to Sita, before calling for the other two female house-elves.

"Hello Arwen, Faelwen. This is mister Snape's son, Sita. He is in need of your help, and he is unsure as to what he might be walking into. We chose the two of you because you are skilled as a warrior and as a healer. I chose to send both of you, because you may need to bring another back with you, along with Sita. You understand?" Calanon asked them. "Yes sir," they both responded, bowing slightly in the process.

"Now, Sita, I want you to picture exactly where you want to go, and let these two do the rest, okay?" Caladwen explained to Sita, who then nodded back in understanding, remembering to bow back slightly in return. Sita took a moment to think about Number 4 Privet Drive, in Little Winging, Surrey. When he had the location fixed in his mind, he nodded to show that he was ready, before the two house-elves grabbed his had, and blinked out of the Manor. "Good-luck, child." The two remaining house-elves murmured, before heading to the sitting room, to watch and wait when the could tell Severus where his son had disappeared to.

The three of them appeared in the back yard of his aunt and uncle's house with a faint pop. It was still light out, so Sita hoped that no one had noticed their unusual arrival. As he made his way closer to the house, he could hear his uncle's voice, and even bits of what he was saying. "I swear, that boy is going to get real good in a moment, if he doesn't start telling me the truth!" Sita wondered if he was talking about Dudley, or another kid. He heard Petunia's faint whimper, and knew then that Vernon had hurt her or Dudley, or both of them. His fears were confirmed when he heard a slap ring out, and Vernon tell her to stop whining like a bitch. He then saw his uncle start to make his way up the stairs, and knew he had to act fast.

"Arwen, Faelwen, can you quickly get my cousin. He's upstairs right now, were my uncle is going. I'm going to get my aunt. I'll be alright, just meet me at Mrs. Figg's house. It's the one with all the cats, so you can't miss it. I'll be right behind you." They nodded to him, before popping out of view to retrieve Dudley.

Harry went to the back door, and found it was locked. He used wandless magic to unlock the door, before slipping into the house quietly, careful to not make a sound. As he made his way into the house, he could hear her faint whimpering, and decided to follow the noise. He found her in the living room, curled on the floor, huddled as close as she could to the wall, to avoid being hit as much as possible. As Sita stepped into the room, he made a small sound on the carpet, making Petunia's head whip around to face him, fear evident in her eye's.

She was about to scream in panic, until she realized that it was Sita. She didn't know him by that name, so she called him the only name she had ever known him as. "Harry? Is that really you? What are you doing here?"She asked him, panicked now. "Harry, you have to get out of here, Vernon will be back any minute!" She gasped then, looking behind Harry.

"So, _boy,_" Vernon spat out venomously, "I see you've returned for some more punishment." Vernon had a crazed look in his eye that Sita had never seen before, and it scared him. He could face Voldemort, in a cemetery at night, with no way to defend himself and not be scared, but his uncle looked like a maniac just now, even more than Voldemort ever had.

"Actually, no. I came to get my aunt and cousin the hell away from you, and your sick, twisted sense of punishment." Sita responded, braver than he felt at the moment. "Why you..." Vernon growled before lunging toward his nephew. Sita managed to side-step the attack, and when Vernon turned around to lunge again, Sita was prepared. He had gathered as much strength as he could muster, and sent a stunning curse at his uncle, wandlessly. His uncle stopped in mid-attack, and crumpled to the floor.

Petunia was in shock. Her life had been turned upside down in less than an hour, and she didn't even know if Dudley was okay. She had yet to see him since he had been led upstairs, and she was worried about him. Vernon had only started on her once she started telling him that he had done enough, that this was their son, and he didn't need to act the way he was. He had just turned around on her then, and started slapping, and punching her. When he left to go back upstairs, she had been worried about what he would do to Dudley next, when Harry had appeared. She knew he wasn't able to use magic outside of school, and hadn't expected him to do much, so she told him to leave, fearing for his safety, knowing Vernon had finally snapped, and would kill him if given a chance. So she was surprised when Harry threw the curse at him, without his wand, or saying anything.

Sita stood there panting for a moment, gathering his strength once more. Once he had recovered slightly, he told his aunt that Dudley had been moved already, and was safe. Petunia couldn't help herself, and jumped up to hug her only nephew. The action shocked them both, and they stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what the other truly meant to each other. When Vernon twitched slightly, Sita remembered that they had to get the hell out of there, before the spell wore off. He asked his aunt if there was anything she or Dudley wanted to keep, knowing that his uncle would most likely break everything else when he came to and found them all gone, so she went to grab some of the items that were truly precious to her and her son.

She knew they would have to carry everything she grabbed, and was having a problem deciding what to take. A photo album, baby pictures, she wanted to take it all. While she was lost in thought as to what to take with her, Sita was grabbing a few things she had left hidden in her room, and in the closet under the stairs. Once he was done, he found his aunt and asked her if she had decided on what she wanted to take.

"I can't decide. I definitely want all the pictures, but there are so many! I made a pile here but now I have to decide what is most important." She said sadly, not wanting to leave any of it with the madman she calls her husband. "Then I guess we'll just have to take it all, now wont we?" He said to her with a sly grin. "This is just one of the many useful times it comes in handy to be a wizard. Watch." He said to her, as he pulled out his never ending bag. As he began stuffing things into the bag, she was surprised when it didn't appear to get bigger. She watched in amazement when he finished packing everything into the bag, and picked it up as if it weighed nothing at all.

"Is that everything, or can you think of anything else?" He asked her, preparing to leave. "Just one more thing, come with me." She made he way into the attic, and pulled out a box, but didn't open it, before saying that this was everything. Sita placed the box in the bag, and told her that it was time to leave. She nodded, and with a small sniff, stood beside him as they made their way out of the house, and over to Mrs. Figg's house.

When they got to her house, they knocked on the door, and waited for her to answer. When she did, she looked rather unnerved to see the state Petunia was in. "Come in, come in." She said to the two of them. She closed the door, and bolted it shut behind them, before turning to them and ushering them into the living room, where they could see Dudley laying.

He was unconscious, and had been since the house-elves had found him upstairs. His face was black and blue already, and his leg appeared to be twisted at an odd angle. When Sita got closer, he could tell that his cousin was having trouble breathing, but that he was definitely breathing. He sighed in relief, and asked where the house-elves had gone off to.

"Faelwen said that she was going to let the others know what had happened, and where you now are, and Arwen is getting some clean water, to try and clean the poor boy to see where he's bleeding from." Mrs. Figg sobbed then, never having seen someone so brutalized in her life, and not knowing what to do to help.

"Letting us into your house to get away from that monster is help enough. Thank you." Sita said to the old woman, trying to ease her fears. Meanwhile, Petunia had gotten over the initial shock of seeing her son in the state he was in, and was now kneeling by his side, whispering soothing words into his ear. When Arwen came back into the room, Petunia squeaked in fear, never having seen a house-elf before. She calmed down once Sita explained that she was here to help, and was not a dark creature.

Sita settled down beside Arwen, and asked if there was anything he could do to help the house-elf. Arwen nodded, and said to start stitching up the clean wounds, while she continued to clean other wounds. They began their work, silently trying to fix the damage done to the young boy.

Meanwhile, back at the Manor... Severus and Lupin had just finished their shouting match with each other, finally coming to an understanding about what had happened that one fateful night. They then realized that they hadn't heard from Sita for a while, again. As they were about to leave the sitting room, Caladwen, Calanon, and Faelwen all popped into the room, blocking the entrance.

"Mister Snape," they said in unison, while bowing to him. "Hello, is there something I can do for the three of you?" He asked curiously, while bowing back. "No, but I do believe there is something we can do for you." Calanon responded, gesturing for Faelwen to come forward. Severus raised his eyebrow in surprise. Faelwen almost never spoke to him, preferring to send him anything he needed through her 'superiors'.

She shuffled forward nervously, before launching into what she had to say. "Young Sita has decided to go help his aunt and cousin." She said in a rush, before Severus began ranting. "He said he had a bad feeling about his cousin, and he was right. When we got to the house, the uncle was heading up to the boy's room to hurt him again, even though he was already unconscious. Sita went in to get his aunt, and told us to meet him at a Mrs. Figg's house, knowing that we would be safe there. I don't know if Sita is there now, I came back here as soon as I could, because the boy definitely needs help, and there's only so much we can do for a muggle."

Severus blew up then, yelling and cursing the stupidity of his son. "Of all the asinine, stupid, unbelievable things he could do. Why didn't he get us before he left?" He demanded of no one in particular. Caladwen spoke then, trying to make the man before her understand. "He knew the two of you were arguing, and he said that it was something that shouldn't be disturbed, and that you needed to work out what ever issues the two of you had, which is why he requested our help in this matter. And we were happy to assist him, rather than him going off alone."

The last words she said seemed to penetrate his mind, and he realized that he should be grateful that his son had had enough intelligence to ask for help, considering all the times he hadn't, and had nearly been killed. "Can you take me to Mrs. Figg's, and hopefully Sita is there now, and unharmed?" He asked Faelwen. She nodded, nervous that he would ask her to take him, and not Caladwen or Calanon. She was a rather young house-elf, and had not really met the man who owned the house, before he stopped coming to the house regularly. She took his hand in hers, and took the hand of Remus as well, knowing that he would want to come along, and with a small pop, they appeared in the backyard of Mrs. Figg's house.

Severus made his way to the back door quickly, before knocking on the door, hoping someone would answer quickly. After a few moments of waiting, he was about to knock again, when he was greeted by Sita, none-the-less. He immediately started to look him over, just to make sure that he hadn't been injured, before entering the premises.

He then made his way over to where Sita directed him, knowing that as a Potions Master, he knew more about potions, and therefore knew more about healing muggles than his son did. When he looked upon the child laying before him, he couldn't believe his eyes.

Even though Arwen and his son had attempted to heal the boy of his injuries, they were unaware of the fact that a person could use magic on a muggle, even if only for healing purposes. The boy looked as if he had been tortured, and left for dead. He immediately checked to make sue that he was breathing, much the same as his son had done, before casting a spell to stop the bleeding of the young man before him.

He then cast a diagnostic spell over him to determine the extent of the damage inflicted on him before he proceeded with any treatment. Through his scans, he learned that there had been a few bones broken, which seemed to have been expertly reset, quite a few cuts, which were again, expertly stitched, and all that was left was a few bruises, left to heal over the next few days.

When he asked who had performed the surgical aspects, he was horrified to learn that his son had been the one to stitch and reset everything in his cousin, without blinking an eye the entire time. He had passed out once Severus arrived, leading him to believe that the boy had taxed his strength by looking after his cousin.

He finished looking after the boy, before he attended to the woman who looked like she had been suffocated within an inch of her life. She refused to let him anywhere near her, until Sita woke up long enough to explain that he was family, and wouldn't hurt her.

She quieted long enough for him to tell her that they would transport her and her son to the infirmary at Hogwarts, before sending them off to somewhere safe, once they were healed of all injuries caused by that monster. He proceeded to heal her enough for transport, before thanking Abreala Figg for her hospitality, and asking the house-elves present to use their magic to send them to the Hogwarts infirmary. With a small pop, they disappeared.

Once he was there, he called out for Poppy, knowing that she would be sleeping within hearing range, as she had always done in years past. And as always, she appeared in the room as if she had always been awake the entire time. Once she saw the boy before her, she immediately began to work on him, and reduce the amount of scarring to nothing. She then called for Harry and Severus, wanting to know what they wanted to do, in light of the situation. "Should I allow them to stay here, or should I send them away?" She asked them uncertainly, not knowing where they stood in the matter of 'Harry's' mistreatments.

They decided to give it some time, and let them stay at the castle, but only with permission from the headmaster. After all, the final decision was up to him, after all. They decided to give them a few days before confronting the headmaster, even if they could only heal, and proceeded to tell Poppy that no-one must know of their existence their. She agreed, but only before she told them that they had to learn the mediwitch class that she was teaching.

They agreed, reluctantly, and left her to her job of healing those who were presented to her, before passing out in the waiting room, waiting for results.

End of Chapter

Please read and review!

**A/N: I know that everyone hates the Dursley's, but give it a chance... Dudley only learned the way he was because if his dad, and Petunia was one of those people who believed that she could better him by staying by him.**

**And thank you to all of my reviewers! Your positive influence helps me to strive on.**


	16. Ch15: Realizations

_Disclaimer:_ I only own my own ideas and thoughts... J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter...

_A/N:_ Thanks again to all of my reviewers... I'm really glad that so many people like my story so far. And please don't flame me on my reviews... If you don't like my story, either don't read, or private message and tell me exactly what you don't like about it. And as I said before, this story has nothing to do with me, I just like the name Sita... If anyone cares to know, my real name is Caitlin, and that's all I'm gonna say about that. Well then, onto the story!

_Chapter 15: Realizations_

Once they had everything sorted out for the next few days, regarding Sita's family, they left them to Madam Pomfrey's care, and headed to the headmaster's office, yet again.

"You know, boy," Severus began, "even James didn't end up in the headmaster's office as much as you do." Before snickering quietly behind his hand, trying to make it look like a cough. Sita had to grin at that. "There's something I need to talk to him about anyway." He said, leaving the other two adults to wonder what he meant.

A moment later, Sita suddenly remembered that he had been cooking a stew, over at Severus' house in Romania, and told him so. "That won't be a problem. I can get Caladwen to take it off the stove, and bring it here. I'm sure its still fine." He finished with a smirk, knowing that it was probably ruined by know, but giving the boy before him hope.

By then, they had reached the headmaster's office, and realized that the last password any of them knew, did not work. So they began to try all different sorts of names of muggle and wizard candy that they knew, before Sita slapped himself on the head, and told the other two to stop and follow him.

He didn't wait to see if they followed, and turned around quickly, looking for any door he could find. He came upon a broom closet, and concentrated on the Archive Room, before he pulled it open. He turned around to see Remus and his father coming up behind him, and waited for them to enter first before following them in, and closing the door behind him.

He then concentrated specifically on Dumbledore's office, before conjuring the door, and opening it to reveal the headmaster's office. Needless to say, Severus and Remus were impressed, and Dumbledore was startled at the sudden appearance of the three of them, having just changed the password on his office again, and he hadn't told anyone the new password yet.

Once he regained his composure, he greeted the three of them before offering them all a lemon drop, and a seat. "I'm glad the three of you are alright, seeing as you seemed to disappear again, Harry." Dumbledore said to him. "Now, what brings you here?" He asked them.

"First, we wanted to let you know that we were here, and safe, and that we just lost track of time in the Archive Room." 'Harry' began. "And the second thing is that I am going to announce to the world, at the right time of course, that professor Snape is my true father. I plan on giving them only the necessary details, while at the same time, I do not wish to reveal that I am a girl. I plan on using the spell that Severus used at the meeting, to make myself look like his son, and I plan on never going back to the Dursley's, _ever_ again. Have I made myself clear, headmaster?" 'Harry' asked him.

Dumbledore was shocked, having never heard anyone speak to him like that before, and in his dumbfounded state, swore on his magic not to interfere with what Harry was planning, on Harry's request, before he realized what he had done. Harry then explained that he wanted to be called Sita, but only in private, and only by certain people, meaning his close friends only, and a few others, that he might name later.

Dumbledore had no other option at that point but to agree with him, and promise to call him Harry unless otherwise told so, since Dumbledore had sworn on his magic not to interfere, and this fell under what Harry was planning.

Harry then went on to ask what to do about his training, since it was now too late to start that day, and Dumbledore decided to wait until the next Saturday for him to begin, and told him so. He arranged a place and time, and told Harry that he would be meeting his first instructor there.

Once they had everything worked out, Harry decided it was time to leave, and they bid the headmaster goodnight, not intending to see him again that night. They left the office then, and made their way down to Severus' quarters in order to eat the stew that Harry had prepared earlier, before all of the dramatics.

When they had reached a sufficient distance from the headmaster's office, Severus asked Harry what his plans were, and when he would be announcing that he was Severus Snape's son, and not James Potter's son. He needed to be prepared, after all, since he was unsure of what Voldemort or Dumbledore would do, once everything was made public. He did know, however, that Voldemort would be pissed off, due to the fact that this revelation would basically let him know that Severus had been spying on him in the past, as well as now. He explained this to Harry, though he didn't know why he felt compelled to do so.

Harry thought about his answer, and didn't respond until they had reached Severus' quarters, and they had been sufficiently warded, so no one would hear what Harry was about to say.

"I plan on going to Luna Lovegood tomorrow, and getting her father to release everything I want known, while at the same time, I plan on sending the Daily Prophet a letter, signed with my magical signature so they know its real, that everything I said in the Quibbler is true. I plan on everyone knowing by Monday morning. What do you think? It gives Dumbledore less time to get someone else to try and stop me." Harry concluded explaining his plan of action to the two adults, before he made his way to what he assumed must be a kitchen.

The other two followed him, and while they set the table for dinner, Severus told Harry that it was a good plan. "I still don't mind if you or Remus call me Sita, but only if were somewhere warded, or where no one can hear us. I don't want anyone else to know that I'm a girl, since I want to be able to use that to escape everyone, meaning the press, after Moldy-shorts is defeated." Harry said, changing into his female self with little more than a thought now, and snickering at the great new name he had come up with to insult the bastard.

It took the other two a few minutes to realize what Sita had called the evil wizard, before they burst into laughter, imagining the look on the monster's face if he ever heard someone call him that. It took them nearly ten minutes to calm down enough to wipe the tears of laughter out of their eyes, and her father was the first to recover, by saying that he should start calling him that all the time, especially to his friends and in the corridors, and hopefully it would catch on, since Dumbledore had once told him that 'fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself', and laughter would help keep people's spirits up. And then he burst into laughter again, after having looked at the serious look Sita was trying to give him.

Finally, after about another twenty minutes, they were all settled down enough to eat, and washed up for dinner. While Sita washed her face, she realized that she hadn't seen Hermione, Ron, or Draco all day, not to mention the DA, so Sita summoned Dobby, and told him to let Hermione, Ron, and Draco know that Harry Potter was in the school, safe, and that he would meet them all at the Room at 9:30pm, since he couldn't tell them himself at the moment. Sita did not want Dobby to know at that particular point in time that he was Sita, and just told him that he was one of Harry's friends. Dobby believed her, and popped off to tell the three students what she had requested.

He needed to have a talk to Dobby about that. But, on the lighter side, now it was time for dinner, and Sita was famished, having not eaten all day, and had exhausted herself by first crying and raging, and then by having to save his aunt and cousin. Of which he still had to deal with once the were healed enough to talk to.

As the three of them ate their dinner in silence, Sita thought about what had happened to his aunt and cousin, and wondered what had brought it on. Once they had gotten them to the infirmary at the school, Poppy had healed the worst of the cuts on Dudley that Harry had stitched, and applied many salves to the bruises on the boy. She had also given him a potion to speed the healing of the bones, once she had checked to see that they had been re-set properly. But it would take a week before he would be able to even get out of the bed on his own, and he needed to remain still for the first few hours, so once Poppy had revived him, she had to give him a vial of Dreamless Sleep, in order for him to get some rest.

Petunia had been quiet up to that point, until Poppy said that she needed to look at her as well, just to make sure that none of her injuries were anything more than superficial. Petunia then started to shake her head violently, stating that she was just fine, and didn't need any medical attention, until she got dizzy and swooned on her feet, but was caught by Remus, with his werewolf speed, before she fell on her ass and embarrassed herself further.

He gently placed her on one of the hospital beds, before he moved out of the way to let Poppy examine her. After Poppy had examined her, she treated Petunia much the same as when she treated Dudley, only this time, when she waved her wand over her, Poppy frowned, but only for a moment, before she finished her treatments, and gave her a Dreamless Sleep potion as well. Before she drank it, however, Harry told her that he would be by later, to check on how she was holding up.

Once asleep, the three adults still awake, plus Harry, talked about what they should do, regarding his aunt and cousin. "Well," Harry had begun first, "neither Petunia or Dudley actually took part in any of the beatings my uncle would give me. In fact, I don't think that Dudley ever even knew that that was going on, and as for Petunia, I don't think she really knew what his punishments consisted of, and chose to believe the most positive scenario she could come up with. They were terrorized by that monster just as much as I was, in their own ways." Severus and Remus both tried to disagree with Sita, knowing that if they had truly wanted to look into his well-being or how he was being punished, they could have. Sita won them over eventually by saying that they would have never believed him if he had said anything or showed them bruises, that they would have blamed it on anybody other than Vernon Dursley, and he would have just been beaten worse in the long run, with them being beaten as well, just for asking questions.

Once everyone was finally convinced that this was what Sita truly wanted, they decided to let them stay at Hogwarts for a few days, before letting them stay at Prince manor while they continued to heal. Sita decided that their final decision about where they would go would be up to them, and only them, but only after they had had sufficient time to heal, since they had already had so much taken away from them.

Then, they had gone to talk to the headmaster about what Severus and Sita had decided to do, since they both knew that Dumbledore would try to talk them out of it somehow, which was why 'Harry' had made him swear an oath on his magic not to interfere. He figured that he could get Luna all of the information by noon sometime the next day, which was a Sunday, and even possibly get an express print made up for that night, and the letter sent off to The Daily Prophet by dinner time, so that they could have something printed up in Monday's edition. Sita was grinning to herself like the Cheshire cat at that moment, thinking of how funny it would be to see everyone waking up to that news, especially if they were in the middle of a bite of food or a drink of pumpkin juice.

When Severus asked her what was so funny, she couldn't help but explain the thought she had just had about releasing their announcement by Monday morning's breakfast, and both Lupin and Severus agreed that it would be worth it to be there by morning post, before continuing to eat in silence, but still imagining what would occur in a few days.

After they had finished eating, and putting the clean dishes away, Severus complimented Sita on a very well cooked dinner, and mentioning that he was surprised that it hadn't been ruined. "I asked Caladwen to keep an eye on it. I figure she must have put a stasis charm on it once it was ready." She replied with a shrug. "Well I'm glad you did that. Severus was right, it was a damn good stew." Remus agreed, giving Sita a slight slap on the back. "Now, how about going to Hagrid's. I know we said earlier that we would go had a spot of tea with him, but I think its a little late for that now, don't you agree?" He asked her. Sita thought for a moment, before agreeing. "Yes, I think we should wait for tomorrow. I have to go meet Ron and Hermione right now anyways. But I also promised to spend some time with Draco, and possibly Ron and Hermione if I can. And I need to talk to Luna early enough to get that information out to her father. And I still have to write that letter to The Daily Prophet so it can be sent out by dinner time so they can publish it in the Monday morning paper!" Sita finished, exasperated.

"How about I meet you at Hagrid's for tea around 11am and then you'll heave the rest of the day to do what you need to do. How does that sound to you, Sita?" Remus asked her. "Sounds like a plan! I'll see you there at 11am tomorrow then. I have to be going now. See you tomorrow Remus. Have a good night, dad." She said to the two of them before giving them a hug, and turning back into 'Harry'. He then exited his father's quarters, and made his way to the Room of Requirement.

_Meanwhile, at the Room of Requirement..._

Ron, Hermione, and Draco, having not seen or heard anything from Harry all day, were beginning to worry. And to only have Dobby tell them that he was told by someone he didn't know that Harry was indeed in the castle, and safe, didn't make them feel too much better.

So as the clock reached 9pm, the three of them began to flick their eyes back and forth between the clock and the door. As the clock then reached 9:01pm, they were just about to get up and look out into the hallway to see if Harry was coming, when suddenly, the door opened, and in walked Harry, with a huge grin on his face. Which managed to peeve the other three who had been waiting all day, worried about him. But, all in all, they figured that they couldn't be too mad at him, since he was safe at Hogwarts after all, and uninjured as well. At least, until Hermione pulled him into a giant bear-hug, and told him to never do that again, nearly suffocating him with the force, and two huge slaps he received on his back from Draco and Ron, who also told him to never do that again, but also promised him gratuitous violence, possibly on his broom or something else like that, should he ever make them worry that much again.

After all of the worry and grief was done with, the four of them settled down to talk, once Harry had warded the doors, and turned into Sita. She began the conversation by telling them that if they were in a safely warded room, she wanted to be called Sita, but if they were out in public, or around anyone else other than the four of them sitting there now and Remus and her dad, that she wanted to be called Harry, and told them about what she planned to do by Monday morning.

Hermione decided that it was still early enough to collect all of the information that they would need to give Luna the next day, and proceeded to help Sita to get it ready, and compose the letter that she would need to send to The Daily Prophet at dinner time, when everyone should be receiving their express copies of the Quibbler.

They finished their task within an hour, which surprised the boys, who were playing chess to pass the time. They then decided that it would be a good idea to try and get as much sleep as possible, since they all had a lot planned for the next day.

They exited the Room of Requirement, and headed their separate ways, since Ron and Hermione both had to go to Gryffindor, which was in the towers, and 'Harry' and Draco had to go to their own respective quarters. Draco was unfortunate in having to go to Slytherin by himself, and 'Harry' knew that he would be bored until he was able to fall asleep if he went to his quarters alone. So, he waited until he and Draco were far enough away from the others before asking him if he wanted to spend some time in his quarters until he was tired enough to go to bed.

"Sure," Draco agreed, happy to be away from Slytherin even if only for a short while longer. "I had fun the last time I was over. Do you think we could have some more wine?" Draco asked him, a little shyly. By then, they had changed their direction, and were at 'Harry's' quarters. "I don't see why not. I haven't been to the store yet to get you what you want, so you can help yourself to anything you see."

As 'Harry' opened the door to his quarters, he wondered why Draco had asked something as shyly as he had, but passed it off as what he figured to be a crush the boy had on him, or at least on Sita, his female self. He then closed and warded the door before turning back into Sita. She noticed that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable as Harry, and hoped that no one else would notice.

They spent a few more hours awake, drinking wine and talking about what they could do during the summer to kick some sort of wizarding orphanage off the ground, so orphaned kids wouldn't have to grow up without knowing about their heritage. And possibly even a school, so that muggle born children could be introduced to the wizarding culture, rather than just being thrown into it, like most usually were. They decided to wait until the next day to go over properties and finances and such, however, since they were both beginning to get tired at that point.

Sita decided to bid Draco a good night, before promising to have breakfast in her quarters with him the next day. Draco wished her a good night, and made his way back to Slytherin, feeling good about what they had planned for the next day, even if most of it would be spent with 'Harry'.

Sita then decided to have a relaxing bubble bath, which just so happened to have whirlpool jets in it, before heading off to bed. One last thought penetrated her head before she fell asleep, however. She wondered, if Draco had a crush on her, why hadn't he tried to kiss her. Just as she fell asleep, she had a brilliant thought that maybe Draco was shy, due to his upbringing, and didn't know how to show his emotions, so therefore was unable to voice his wants or needs correctly. Sita vowed to fix that, any way she could, before falling into a peaceful, dream filled bliss.

_**A/N:**_ I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I've been caught up with work, but I think I'll have a little more time to write now... I'll update again as soon as possible, and thanks to all my reviewers. It really does help to hear some people like my story so far.


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